Chapter 58: The Indoor Fish
In the Hunter x Hunter world, air travel wasn't about cramped seats and tiny windows. The airships were massive, floating behemoths, more like luxury liners in the sky than the planes Kai remembered from his past life.
This ship, a long-haul vessel connecting the Ochima Federation on the North Ames continent to the Gukan'yu Kingdom on the South Ames continent, was particularly grand. It had everything: budget dorms, private cabins, luxury suites, observation decks, and entertainment lounges.
The flight was scheduled to take 20 hours.
Kai checked his new phone. 11:44 AM. They wouldn't land until 7:00 or 8:00 AM the next morning.
"The passenger count is so low..." one flight attendant whispered to another as they walked past.
"I heard a thief stole a huge number of tickets right before boarding... mostly for this flight," the other replied.
Kai's ears twitched. He was using Gyo on them.
Shizuku, noticing the movement, stared at his ears.
"What?" Kai asked, giving her a deadpan look.
"Your ears..." She reached out and touched one. "They moved."
"Like this." Kai reached out and gently tugged on her ears. "Alright, stop playing. Let's go to the room and get ready."
"Ready for what?" Shizuku asked, unbothered by the ear-tugging.
"Our Aura is too conspicuous," Kai muttered. He grabbed their tickets and led the way.
They checked in, got their key, and headed for the cabin area.
"Here it is." Kai stopped at a door.
Just as he reached for the handle, the door to the next cabin opened.
A blond man in a rumpled suit stepped out, loosening his tie. He turned, saw Kai and Shizuku, and his face lit up with that infuriating, perfect smile.
"Well, isn't this a coincidence?" Pariston Hill beamed.
Kai acted as if he were deaf. He shoved the key in the lock, grabbed Shizuku—who was staring at Pariston with placid curiosity—and dragged her inside.
SLAM.
The door shut.
...
Pariston's smile didn't waver. He shrugged, put on his suit jacket, and strolled down the corridor, hands in his pockets.
As he passed through the observation lounge, a young man reading a book looked up. The white bandage on his forehead stood out against his black hair. His eyes, dark and still as a deep pool, tracked the blond man in the suit.
"What is it, Chrollo?" Machi asked from beside him.
"Just saw an expert," Chrollo said calmly, returning to his book.
...
Pariston made his way to the luxury suite section. Unlike the regular cabins, these rooms had large windows looking out into the hallway, allowing passersby a glimpse of the opulence inside—or, if the curtains were open, a view straight through to the clouds outside.
Inside one of the largest suites, a tall, obese man was sprawled comfortably on a king-sized bed. Ojiesky, the acquitted wife-killer.
He heard the chime of the doorbell. Frowning, he waddled over and pulled back the curtain.
His eyes went wide. It was Pariston! The brilliant lawyer who had saved his life and won him his dead wife's fortune!
"Mr. Pariston! What a surprise! You're on this flight?" Ojiesky beamed, opening the door for a hug.
But Pariston's expression was grave. He stepped inside and closed the door. "Mr. Ojiesky," he said, his voice low and serious. "There are assassins on this ship. They're here for you."
"What?!" Ojiesky turned pale, his fat trembling. "How... why..."
"I can't say much," Pariston said smoothly. "But please, be careful. Do not leave this room. Do not open the door for anyone. Not even room service."
"I... I won't! I promise!" Ojiesky stammered, terrified. "Who... who wants to kill me? Mr. Pariston, you have to help me!"
"I'm afraid I'm not a lawyer anymore, Mr. Ojiesky..." Pariston said with a sad smile, and slipped back out the door.
In Kai and Shizuku's cabin.
"Basically," Kai explained, "we need to disguise ourselves as 'normal people'."
"How?"
"We have to adjust our Ten," he said, looking pained. "Make it messy. Irregular. And... we have to let a little bit of Aura leak from the top of our heads. Like smoke."
Kai hated this. He had spent weeks training himself to never leak Aura, to maintain a perfect, sealed Ten at all times. Doing this felt like throwing money down a drain.
"The Phantom Troupe is on board," he reminded her. "The ship is half-empty. If two kids are walking around with perfect, master-level Aura control, we're going to stick out like a sore thumb."
"We could just stay in the room," Shizuku suggested.
"But I want to see the clouds from the observation deck," Kai admitted.
"Oh." Shizuku nodded. "Me too. Let's practice."
"Start," Kai said. He closed his eyes, trying to force his perfectly honed Aura to become sloppy and jagged.
Fifteen minutes later, Shizuku had nailed it. Her Aura looked soft, fuzzy, and uncontrolled. A thin wisp of energy drifted lazily from the top of her head. She looked exactly like a Muggle with slightly above-average vitality.
"This doesn't make sense..." Kai grumbled. He was struggling. His Aura kept snapping back into a perfect shell. It was too dense, too controlled. When he tried to loosen it, it just looked fake.
Shizuku analyzed him with Gyo. "This disguise... it relies on shaping and altering the flow of Aura. That's Transmutation."
She pointed at herself. "I'm a Conjurer. Transmutation is right next to my category, so it's easier for me. You're a Manipulator. It's on the opposite side of the chart. That's probably why it's harder for you."
"Ah. That explains it," Kai sighed. "It's my worst affinity. 40% efficiency."
It was why he never bothered training Transmutation. Why waste time on something so inefficient when he could be grinding Ken?
It took another thirty minutes, but Kai finally managed to make his Aura look convincingly mediocre.
"Alright. I'm hungry. Let's go test our disguise."
They went to the entertainment lounge, ordered food, and sat by a window, watching the endless sea of clouds roll by beneath the airship.
"How do we know if it's working?" Shizuku asked, chewing a fry.
Kai paused, his fork halfway to his mouth. "That... is a good question. We can't ask them. And if we look at them to see if they're looking at us... they'll notice us looking."
They stared at each other in silence for a moment, then went back to eating.
...
Back in the room, after lunch.
"Since we can't do a full Ken grind without wrecking the room," Kai said, "we can work on Hatsu."
Since they were Manipulator and Conjurer, their Hatsu training was quiet and low-impact. Perfect for a cabin.
Kai sat on his bed, a small ball of Aura hovering over his palm. Inside the ball was a piece of thread he'd pulled from the blanket.
He was trying to combine Emission and Manipulation.
'If I can shoot a projectile that carries my Star Marker...' he thought. 'If I can tag an enemy from a distance...'
He frowned. The Aura ball wobbled. It was hard.
"If brute force doesn't work... add a Restriction."
Shizuku, who was playing with Blinky, looked up. "What kind?"
"Nothing too dramatic," Kai mused. "Just... a trade-off. To get the core effect I want, I'll sacrifice everything else. For example... I'll give up all damage and destructive power. The projectile will be harmless. In exchange... I want range, speed, and the guarantee that the Mark will stick."
He imagined it. A harmless ball of light that hits an enemy... and instantly brands them.
What should I call it?
Soft & Wet?
Nah...
He spent the next few hours deep in meditation, refining the concept.
Night fell. The stars came out, brilliant and clear above the clouds. The ocean below was a black void.
The ship was quiet. Most passengers were asleep.
In the dark cabin, Shizuku rolled over. "Kai? Can't sleep?"
"No..."
Kai was staring at the ceiling, his brow furrowed. "Something... feels wrong."
He sat up abruptly, his eyes darting around the room.
Shizuku sat up, hair messy, looking at him.
"Go back to sleep," Kai said, hopping off his bunk. "I'm going to check it out."
"Okay." She lay back down and was asleep in seconds.
...
The corridors were silent. Kai moved like a ghost.
He saw a flash of blond hair disappearing around a corner.
Him again?
Kai frowned. What is Pariston up to now?
He followed, easily slipping past a patrolling guard. He tracked Pariston to the luxury suite section.
Pariston was standing in the hallway, staring into one of the suites through the observation window. He had opened the curtain slightly.
He was smiling. That same, delighted, terrifying smile.
Kai crept closer and peered past him, into the room.
His pupils shrank to pinpricks.
Inside the dim, luxurious room, the fat man, Ojiesky, was slumped on the sofa, his back to the window.
Floating in the air around him... were fish.
Huge, skeletal, translucent fish, swimming through the air as if it were water.
One of the fish glided toward Ojiesky. It opened its mouth and took a bite out of his shoulder.
There was no blood.
Ojiesky didn't scream. He didn't even move. He just sat there, staring blankly ahead, as the fish circled back for another bite.