At a modest restaurant located a few blocks away from the Special Voyage Bureau building.
A waiter pushed a silver dining cart toward a corner table, his eyes darting nervously toward the sole occupant. It was a young woman with a wild, spiky, light-green hairstyle. She was holding a heavy cast-iron pan in one hand, suspending it mid-air above the table. Her other hand was cupped flat beneath the pan, hovering an inch below the metal, as if she were holding an invisible flame.
The waiter distinctly remembered that the green-haired girl had not arrived alone. She had walked in with a quiet, gentle-looking young woman with medium-length black hair, heavy glasses, and large, innocent lavender eyes. The seat opposite the green-haired girl was currently empty. Had her companion gone to the restroom? Or had she simply slipped out without the waiter noticing?
The waiter cleared his throat, trying to politely inquire about the missing guest, but Menchi did not even glance at him. She remained completely focused on the empty air beneath her pan. Giving up, the waiter quickly served the dishes one by one and hurried away.
In a dimension completely invisible to the waiter's naked eyes, the empty space beneath the pan was roaring with a brilliant, purple flame. Menchi's cupped hand was the source of the fire, using her own aura to heat the pan she had conjured out of thin air.
"Imagine that your body is a dilapidated, wooden house that has been shredded by hundreds of bullet holes. It is the dead of winter, and there is a fire burning inside the house to keep you warm. But the heat is constantly leaking out through all those hundreds of holes. If too much heat escapes, you will freeze to death. Right now, you must figure out a way to plug those holes and stop the heat from escaping."
"Wouldn't it just be easier to patch the bullet holes from the outside? How am I supposed to stop the heat from leaving? This... this is not scientific at all!"
In the dusty, ruined bedroom, Leorio was shouting in sheer frustration.
After Lumos the tiger had used Leorio's body to make a brief phone call, Liam had released his possession, returning full control to the tall teenager. Regaining his autonomy had calmed Leorio's initial panic, but it was quickly replaced by a deep, terrifying exhaustion. As someone who had studied extensively to become a doctor, Leorio was hyper-sensitive to his own physical and mental condition. Given the sheer volume of impossible things that had happened in the last hour, he was rightfully terrified.
He had demanded an explanation from the giant tiger. Lumos had casually informed him that the "aura nodes" across his entire body had been forcibly blown open. If he did not master a technique called Ten to contain the leaking life energy as soon as possible, he would literally bleed his own life force dry and die of exhaustion.
Of course, Liam was just scaring him to force him to focus. The Star Mark had forcefully opened their nodes, but even if they failed to learn Ten, they would not die. The worst-case scenario, according to Liam's own estimates, was that the nodes would simply seal themselves back up over time, returning Leorio and the girls to being completely ordinary humans.
Leorio, however, did not know this. Terrified of dropping dead in his own bedroom, he was currently sweating profusely, desperately trying to follow the tiger's vague instructions on how to use Ten.
"Does anything about me look scientific to you?" Lumos asked dryly.
The massive tiger was currently sitting cross-legged on the floor in a bizarrely human posture. He was holding a delicate porcelain cup of hot tea between his massive, furry paws. Because he possessed the physical anatomy of a tiger, he could not sip the tea gracefully. Instead, he was awkwardly sticking his rough tongue out and lapping at the hot liquid like a giant house cat. It was a very undignified sight.
Leorio stared at the lapping tiger, a heavy black line of exasperation forming over his head.
What annoyed him even more was when Lumos pointed a wet paw toward the opposite side of the room. "Look over there. The girls are clearly smarter than you."
The blue-braided girl and the short red-haired girl, who had also been marked and subsequently freed from Liam's control, were sitting on the floor in the same cross-legged posture as Leorio. They had listened intently to Lumos's lecture on the key points of Ten.
Now, they were both standing perfectly still, eyes closed, entirely focused on retaining their leaking aura.
The wild, upward-flowing aura spilling from the top of Blue Braid's head had noticeably slowed. It was no longer dispersing into the air. Instead, the life energy covering her entire body had begun to pool and gather tightly against her skin, forming a visible, glowing white bubble. It was still fluctuating and slightly unstable, but the containment was working.
"This is amazing!" Blue Braid gasped, her eyes snapping open. She took a deep, shaky breath, looking around the dusty room. "Everything is completely different!"
"What is different?" the short red-haired girl asked quickly, opening one eye. She had not quite grasped the containment technique yet.
"I feel so much clearer," Blue Braid explained, staring at her own glowing hands. "The world looks bigger, sharper, and closer than it did before!"
The little girl with short red hair was the younger sister, named Aoi. The older girl with blue braids was named Akane. Liam found the fact that their names meant "Little blue" and "Little red" while having completely opposite hair colors to be deeply confusing and slightly annoying.
It seemed the sisters had been born into extreme poverty in Moju Village. Orphaned at a young age, they did not even know for certain if they were blood relatives. Their names had likely been chosen at random. They had relied entirely on each other for survival as long as they could remember, turning to cheating and stealing just to put food on the table. Getting caught by the giant tiger today had actually been a massive blessing in disguise.
According to Leorio, Moju Village was a small settlement located near a deep canyon not far from the town. A highly toxic, polluting fog continuously vented from the canyon floor, infecting the nearby villagers. Over time, the locals had dubbed the toxic gas the "Magic Mist," and the settlement had become known as Moju Village.
Leorio once had a close friend who dreamed of finding a way to completely eliminate the poisonous fog. Tragically, the friend had contracted the fog disease himself and eventually died, his body ravaged by the chronic illness. The truth was, the fog disease was not entirely incurable. It was simply a chronic condition that required incredibly expensive, long-term medical treatment and specialized convalescence. Neither the impoverished residents of Moju Village nor Leorio's childhood friend could ever hope to afford the medical bills.
It was the very reason Leorio wanted to become a doctor. He was sick to death of watching people die simply because they could not afford the cure.
Akane and Aoi, hardened by life on the streets, were not nearly as sentimental as Leorio. They were entirely focused on the magical, glowing power they had just unlocked. Aoi clenched her small fists, feeling the surge of physical strength. This was incredible. Now she could finally help her older sister beat up the local gangsters who always harassed them! Akane stared curiously at her glowing hands, realizing this was the exact same white light the giant tiger had used to control them earlier.
Lumos lowered his half-empty teacup. "Alright, who can find me a leaf?"
It was not that Liam was addicted to playing the generous mentor, nor did he have some burning desire to spread the teachings of Nen to everyone he met. He was simply letting nature take its course. Leorio was one of the four main protagonists of the canon timeline. He was destined to become a Zodiac and nearly succeed Netero as the Chairman of the Hunter Association. He was a familiar, trustworthy face, and Liam knew his character inside and out. Teaching him the basics of aura control was a safe investment.
Since Liam had not bothered to hide his instructions from the two street-smart sisters, and since they had clearly demonstrated a natural talent for aura manipulation, he decided to just keep going. He planned to walk them through the basics of Water Divination and the different Nen categories.
Aoi, eager to please, immediately scrambled out the broken window to find a suitable leaf.
Leorio cracked one eye open, struggling to maintain his shaky Ten. "Hey, by the way. Who exactly did you call using my phone earlier? It sounded like you two were about to get into a fistfight over the line."
Because Liam had suppressed Leorio's consciousness to the absolute back of his mind during the call, Leorio had only caught muffled snippets of the conversation. He was pretty sure the voice on the other end belonged to a young woman, and her tone had sounded incredibly hostile.
"Just a friend," Lumos replied smoothly. "I called to arrange a pickup."
"Who are you picking up?" Leorio asked, thoroughly confused. Seeing the giant tiger stare at him with a look of profound, silent judgment, Leorio finally realized what he meant. "Wait, you mean me?!!"
Lumos ignored him entirely. Thousands of miles away, back on the Zoldyck estate, Liam's true body was currently dealing with a completely different, highly concerning problem.
He had completely lost contact with Shizuku.
More specifically, his sensory connection to her Star Mark had vanished into thin air.
What the hell kind of Nen ability did Menchi develop? Liam thought, rubbing his temples in frustration. She pulls out a frying pan, and suddenly Shizuku just stops existing? Where did she take her?
Within a completely isolated, special dimension.
There was absolutely nothing here. The space was a vast, empty void stretching infinitely forward, backward, left, right, up, and down.
The only thing floating in the center of the endless expanse was a fully stocked, pristine kitchen.
The rules of the space were absolute. If you wanted a specific ingredient, you simply had to name it, and it would materialize instantly. If you needed a specific piece of cookware, you just called it out, and it would appear on the counter.
Currently, the only two people inside the floating kitchen were Shizuku and Menchi.
A massive mountain of discarded, unused ingredients dissolved into particles of light and vanished from the countertops. Menchi let out a sharp "Hup!" and slammed her heavy kitchen knife down, burying the blade deep into the wooden chopping board. She dusted off her hands and offered Shizuku a wide, challenging smile.
"Alright," Menchi said. "Are you ready to cook your first dish?"
Shizuku pushed her glasses up her nose and nodded slowly. "Let me try."
Nen Ability: Conjuration – This Oath in This Life
Rule 1. Menchi conjures a specialized cast-iron pan. By channeling her aura into the pan, she ignites a Nen flame. Any external aura that touches the pan (even from multiple targets simultaneously) is instantly converted into fuel for the flame. The physical body attached to the consumed aura is immediately violently pulled into the special pocket dimension located within the pan.
Rule 2. The activation range is strict. Menchi can only ignite an opponent's aura and pull them into the pan if they are standing within a 100-meter radius of her physical body.
Rule 3. Once inside the special dimension, Menchi has access to an infinite, inexhaustible supply of any culinary ingredient she desires.
Rule 4. Upon entry, Menchi is forced by a strict condition to inform the trapped targets of the rules: she will impart her entire culinary knowledge to them without reservation. She is obligated to answer any and all questions related to cooking techniques, ingredients, and recipes, teaching them everything she knows.
Rule 5. The trapped targets and Menchi must compete in three formal cooking matches. The special dimension cannot be dispelled, and no one can leave, until all three matches are concluded.
Rule 6. If the targets fail to defeat Menchi in all three matches, they must unconditionally fulfill three demands of Menchi's choosing. Conversely, if Menchi genuinely feels her dish is inferior to the targets' dish even once, she loses the entire challenge. If she loses, she must unconditionally fulfill three demands from the targets. If multiple people are trapped, she must fulfill three demands for every single person. She only has one chance to lose.
Rule 7. The exact time limit and the specific theme of the dish for each of the three challenges are decided entirely by the trapped targets, giving them a slight advantage.
Rule 8. While inside the arena, Menchi is permitted to use her specialized "Rainbow Seasoning."