The phone flew through the dim cave like a glowing fastball aimed directly at the little gray bird.
Liam's reaction was delayed. He wasn't actually a bird. Jaku's body lacked his human reflexes. Insufficient agility. Insufficient strength. Insufficient aura.
The bunny girl, on the other hand, moved with decisive precision. Sharp. Quick. Practiced. Like a Pokémon trainer throwing a Master Ball.
The phone nailed "Liam-as-Jaku" square in the head.
Bonk.
The bird flapped wildly and dodged to the side. The phone bounced mid-air, but its glowing screen kept tracking the sparrow's movement like a homing missile.
The bunny girl made a small sound of surprise. "Hm."
She tapped her laptop with one hand. Her fingers danced across the keyboard like a concert pianist.
The phone's screen flickered. A colorful pixelated cutscene appeared. A swarm of flies filled the display.
Wait. Not flies. Fireflies.
Some had yellow tails. Others were green. But they all shared one thing: the glowing halos around them were disproportionately large. Way bigger than their tiny bodies. The pixels making up each light trail occupied more screen space than the insects themselves.
A firefly made of colorful pixels appeared on the phone screen, dragging a ball of yellow light behind it. The glow illuminated the dark cave just a bit. The light reflected in Jaku's eye as the bird twisted its head.
Then the pixel-style fireflies started to flesh out. They became real.
One by one, fireflies emerged from the phone screen. Yellow and green orbs of light trailing behind them like comets. Hundreds of them. They poured out of the device in a whirlwind of luminous dots. Within seconds, the cave that had been gloomy and dark was now bright as midday. Yellow and green light clusters floated through the air like glowing clouds.
What the actual hell? Digital pets coming to life?
With the improved lighting, Liam could finally see the bunny girl clearly. The innocent, cute girl with the rabbit-ear headband was exactly who he thought she was.
One of the Twelve Zodiacs of the Hunter Association. The Rabbit.
Pyon? Piyon?
Liam cursed the inconsistent fan translations. When he'd first read the manga, this character had left an impression. She was always glued to her computer and phone during meetings. Even when collecting votes for the new Hunter Association president election, she'd lounge on furniture instead of standing properly.
A fellow shut-in. My people.
So was that phone really a Poké Ball?
The floating phone's screen flashed. It took a photo of "Liam-as-Jaku." Then the entire device turned into a ball of aura and vanished.
Pyon held her laptop in her left hand. She flipped her right hand over, and the phone reappeared in her palm.
She tapped a few keys on the laptop with her left hand while holding the phone in her right. Instantly, countless symbols that looked like green code streamed out from her body and the laptop screen. Lines of data. Cascading. Flowing.
Liam tried to focus all of Jaku's aura into its eyes to see what she was doing, but it was useless. The bird's vision was too limited. The symbols moved too fast.
Even if I were here in person, I probably couldn't follow what she's doing.
The Twelve Zodiacs weren't all top-tier combatants, but they were all exceptional in their fields. Netero had assembled them specifically to surround himself with people who could keep up with him. People who could play at his level.
In the future Pariston, the Vice President and fellow Zodiac member, had said after Netero's death: "I really want to play games with the President again. President Netero was too strong. He couldn't understand the feelings of the weak."
Isaac Netero, Grandmaster and Founder of Shingen-ryu and President of the Hunter Association, was a true elitist.
In the Hunter Exam at the start of the manga, there were hundreds of candidates. Illumi in disguise. Hisoka the perverted fruit farmer. Kurapika the Avenger protagonist. But the only ones who caught Netero's attention were Gon and Killua.
To pierce through the notice of that old monster, to train with him and play games? That wasn't something ordinary masters could do.
Pyon held the phone in her left hand and pressed a few buttons with her thumb. The device emitted an electronic voice.
"Gray-feathered rock sparrow. Subspecies of the Smaller Sparrow family. Primary habitat: Northwestern Ochima Continent, western regions of the Ochima Federation..."
A real bird. Not a Nen beast.
The implication hung in the air. If this was a real bird, then someone with Nen abilities had done something to it.
So is that phone a Poké Ball or a Pokédex? Liam thought about what would've happened if Jaku didn't already have a Star Mark. When that phone hit the bird, would it have been sucked inside and turned into a digital pet like those fireflies?
Pyon pocketed her phone. She glanced at the little gray bird, which had already retreated to the crack in the mountain wall. The sparrow wasn't afraid, though. It just tilted its head and stared back at her.
She's calm. Composed. Kinda like Shizuku.
"Don't fly around," Pyon said again.
Probably a pet bird belonging to some Nen user at the conference. If so, it should understand human language.
She continued walking through the cave, laptop cradled in her arms. She examined the stone walls, which looked completely unremarkable to Liam's eyes. Like she was working. Investigating.
If I remember right, she's an Ancient Documents Hunter or Paleograph Hunter.
Were there ancient carvings on these walls? Bunny-eared Nico Robin...
The "Liam-as-Jaku" bird squeezed back through the gap in the mountain wall.
Liam wasn't an Ancient Documents Hunter. He had zero interest in whatever was in that cave. More importantly, Jaku's own consciousness was chirping anxiously in the back of his mind. Something about Pyon's temperament reminded the bird of Shizuku, which triggered its survival instincts. It wanted to run.
The rock sparrow emerged from the crack. Cold wind and rolling mist hit its face. Refreshing. Invigorating.
Jaku spread its wings, circled twice, then continued flying upward along the cliff staircase.
Back in the cave, Pyon pressed a few buttons on her phone. The fireflies fluttering like a Milky Way turned into pixels and streamed back into the screen. The cave plunged into darkness.
Unaffected, she kept walking with her laptop balanced on one arm.
She wasn't observing with her eyes.
The entire cave environment had been scanned. The areas covered by her En were being analyzed and rendered into a three-dimensional model on her computer screen. More and more detail appearing with each step.
Tetsuro reached the summit first.
He felt no joy. No sense of accomplishment.
When he'd caught up with John Smith and passed him, he'd seen the man's distracted expression. John Smith and his girlfriend were treating this like a casual couples' hike. This place was called the Long Steps to Immortality!
And I'm racing against tourists.
The top of the mountain opened into a villa complex. Pavilions and gardens interspersed with hotels and buildings. Traditional architecture mixed with modern construction.
The end of the Long Steps to Immortality was just outside the main gate. After climbing all the way to the top, the first thing visible was a dead tree standing at the edge of a cliff. Its bare branches extended toward the void like a welcoming pine that had given up on life.
"Finally made it!"
"I'm exhausted..."
One by one, more than thirty martial artists from various schools climbed to the summit. They collapsed onto flat ground, gasping for breath.
Liam looked up at the dead tree on the cliff for a while. Then he turned around and spotted a pavilion just outside the villa.
Inside the pavilion sat the middle-aged man with gray hair and youthful face. The same one who'd been at the base of the mountain not long ago.
The Sky Master.