The thing he feared had happened.
And it was a brazen attack, with complete disregard for the passengers' reactions or lives.
When the hostile aura erupted, Moro's first instinct was to check the situation in the airship's cockpit.
By the time he reached the vicinity of the cockpit, he heard the loud crash that echoed throughout the entire airship.
Moro had no intention of investigating the reason behind the huge sound, and he was even less willing to be dragged into it.
He only cared whether the airship could land safely.
However, after checking with his En, he realized that the airship captain and crew members had very likely been manipulated.
This was probably the worst possible outcome.
"Sir, please return to your room immediately and wait for notification..."
Suddenly, an urgent female voice came from the other side of the corridor.
Moro looked in that direction.
He saw a young woman in an flight attendant's uniform quickly walking towards him, her face full of anxiety.
Moro's gaze quickly swept over the flight attendant.
There was nothing unusual, but...
He suddenly raised his hand, held up his index finger, and condensed a marble-sized, normal Nen sphere at the tip of his finger.
Then, without waiting for the flight attendant's reaction, he abruptly flicked his finger, and the white Nen sphere shot toward the flight attendant.
The instant the Nen sphere left Moro's fingertip, the flight attendant's movements abruptly froze.
Then, she slightly tilted her head back and violently rolled her eyes back.
Seeing this, Moro's eyes narrowed slightly.
The next moment.
The Nen sphere flew past the flight attendant's ear and hit the wall at the end of the corridor, making a soft sound.
This was just an ordinary Nen sphere, as plain as could be, used for probing...
While it could cause injury to an ordinary person, it could hardly break through a basic Nen defense.
And from the start, Moro hadn't intended for the Nen sphere to hit her.
However, the flight attendant's reaction greatly surprised Moro.
Thump!
The flight attendant, still rolling her eyes, listed sideways and fell to the ground.
Moro, who had been observing the situation, keenly noticed that before the flight attendant hit the ground, her shadow, illuminated by the light, completely vanished into thin air.
And as the shadow disappeared, the flight attendant's life was extinguished, and she turned into a corpse.
"Manipulation-type."
Moro instantly confirmed his previous suspicion.
His peripheral vision glanced at the cockpit door not far away, and then he looked back at the corpse on the floor.
The ability controlling the flight attendant seemed to be connected to shadows.
Furthermore, the controlled person, whether in their words, actions, or the naturally dissipating aura around them, was indistinguishable from a normal person.
If not for the flight attendant's almost distressed reaction just now, trying to immediately probe her true nature would likely require an aggressive mindset of "better to kill the wrong one than let the right one go."
However, it was precisely the flight attendant's stress response that greatly concerned Moro.
The advantage of a Manipulation-type Nen user is usually to use the controlled subjects to do various things.
In other words, there's generally no need to worry about the controlled subject's life or death.
Because apart from Suggestion-type and Agreement-type Manipulation abilities, other types, such as Coercion-type Manipulation, essentially strip the target of life when control is implemented.
Thus, the situation that just occurred felt intensely inconsistent.
There was no need to worry about the controlled subject's survival, yet the ability was decisively withdrawn right before the attack was about to land.
It was as if—
The user was worried about or afraid of a certain consequence?
For example, that damage inflicted on the controlled subject would be directly fed back to the ability user?
So, is it a Manipulation-type ability similar to soul possession...?
This type of ability can directly occupy the target's body, achieving perfect disguise, and meeting the real-time needs of sensory feedback and language function.
Conversely, at the level of restrictions, they might have to bear the risk of "direct damage transfer."
If this possibility were true, it would more or less explain the situation just now.
To further confirm this speculation...
Moro suddenly condensed another Nen sphere at his fingertip, then flicked his finger.
Whoosh—
The small Nen sphere hit the corpse's head, making a soft, muffled sound.
A moment later.
Blood seeped from beneath the corpse's head.
"The ability has indeed been withdrawn."
Moro then looked back at the cockpit door, thinking:
The attacker is targeting Kanzai's area, but they controlled a flight attendant to come and stop me... Are they trying to take an opportunity to strike me, or do they simply not want me to enter the cockpit?
While thinking, Moro released his En and walked toward the cockpit door.
Fortunately, he was an Emitter, which allowed him to learn En, an advanced technique, more easily, which was now playing a crucial role.
The reason he probed the flight attendant just now was due to the commotion created by the attacker and his earlier En scan of the cockpit's interior...
"Two people, still no reaction."
Moro destroyed the cockpit door's lock, then pushed the door open and entered.
With just one glance, he saw two people in captain's uniforms standing in front of the airship control panel.
They appeared to be the captain and first officer of the airship.
Moro silently observed the captain and first officer, noting the small amount of Nen lingering on their bodies.
Then his gaze dropped to look behind the two people.
Under the cockpit lights, the shadows that should have been there were missing.
Clack clack—
Moro moved his steps, coming to one side of the cockpit.
The captain and first officer, clearly under manipulation, had no reaction to his arrival, as if they had become programmed puppets.
Moro stopped.
From his angle, he could see the captain and first officer continuing to pilot the airship, and their eyes were pure white...
This was clearly the effect of an ability that drives the controlled subjects by command.
"Two modes of manipulation?"
Moro stared at the two puppets in front of the airship controls.
One is to gain control of the controlled subject's body through soul possession, achieving a perfect disguise, but seemingly carrying a huge risk.
The other is to turn the person into a puppet that acts according to command, but the puppet's white eyes and lack of a shadow directly expose the information.
"If he doesn't show his face, I really won't have an easy time finding him."
Moro frowned.
En is an excellent scouting technique, but it consumes a lot of mental energy and stamina.
With the battle already underway at Kanzai's location, it would be highly impractical to use En to systematically search for the Manipulation-type user hidden somewhere on the airship.
Actually, if he knew how to pilot the airship to land, things wouldn't be so complicated...
In a cabin on the lower floor.
A person was tied to a chair, deep in a coma.
Light shone down from above, casting a long human shadow on the floor.
Suddenly.
A person, who was Kawahara, drilled out of the pitch-black shadow, seemingly from nowhere.
"I've been detected..."
Kawahara's face was a little strained.
If not for the sudden situation, with his ability, he could have slowly gained control of all the ordinary people on the airship, turning the entire airship into the home ground of his "Shadow Has No Retreat."
Then, he could activate the control triggers one by one at the right time to capture Moro in one fell swoop.
Who would have thought that two other groups on the airship would start fighting?
This sudden situation completely disrupted his plan, and furthermore...
The target is very sharp and may have already detected the effect of the "Shadow Has No Retreat" ability.
The difficulty of capturing the target alive has undoubtedly increased.
(End of this Chapter)
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