"He left on his own," Menchi said. "He wasn't with Ochima's people to begin with."
"Right." Liam waved dismissively and walked away.
Dago stood at the door for a long moment, watching the three of them disappear down the road. Finally, he turned and headed back toward West Town.
"Shizuku, don't you live in West Town?"
They were walking toward the amusement park outside East Town. Liam glanced at her.
"The mission's over," Shizuku said. "Do you have other plans?"
Menchi laughed. "As the boss, you have to take care of your subordinates."
"Want to join too?" Liam said. "I can arrange you right alongside her."
Menchi bared her teeth at him.
"Why aren't we going into town?" Shizuku asked, pointing toward East Town proper.
Menchi grinned. "There's a slaughterhouse by the docks. Liam says he can't handle the smell of blood. His nose is better than mine, and I'm a chef."
Liam's expression shifted. Menchi quickly added, "Anyway! I'm leaving. See you at West Town port the day after tomorrow morning!"
"What do you mean, day after tomorrow? Aren't we training today and tomorrow?"
"Then see you this afternoon. Same spot." Menchi waved at Shizuku. "You're coming too, right? I'll bring your portion in advance."
Shizuku watched Menchi jog away, then looked at Liam with a question in her eyes.
"Menchi's a Gourmet Hunter," Liam said. "She cooks really good food."
"Oh," Shizuku said.
They hadn't walked far when a massive shape emerged from the tree line. Moon-white fur. Glowing sapphire markings just starting to shimmer in the fading afternoon light.
"Hey, big guy," Liam said, grinning. He walked over and scratched Lumos behind the ears. "Feels like forever since we've seen each other."
He glanced toward the woods. Birds clustered on the branches. Green ones. White ones. Various species. Two crows.
The little gray bird, Jaku, shot over with a flutter and landed on Liam's shoulder, chirping aggressively.
Two crows left the treetops and glided down, landing nearby.
Shizuku looked curious.
"Don't you remember them?" Liam asked, gesturing at the crows and Lumos.
They'd all "attacked" Lumos when Liam trying to check if Shizuku have the Phantom Troupe
"Why would I remember?" Shizuku said, frowning. "I've never seen them before."
Liam smiled. "Then why do they seem to think they've seen you?"
"Impossible."
What confidence. Liam was genuinely impressed. "Anyway. Let's get food first."
"Okay." Shizuku took two steps, then paused. Wait. If we wanted food, why did we let Menchi leave?
Menchi's cooking was, in fact, delicious.
Shizuku confirmed this while they trained together in the woods that afternoon.
Menchi felt a little melancholy.
Shizuku was so much stronger than her.
And the most powerful one was Liam. Menchi glanced at him, standing alone in the clearing, Ken active, maintaining maximum aura output in complete silence. If she could practice like that, with that kind of discipline, even without his absurd talent, she'd keep getting stronger.
"My stamina recovered," Shizuku said, surprised. She'd finished eating ten minutes ago. "No wonder Liam invited you to join."
Menchi waved her chopsticks proudly. "As long as you're satisfied with my cooking, my ability activates. And it doesn't have to be hot food or fresh dishes. Cold food, bento boxes, even biscuits or cakes work. Anything I make."
"Even stored food?" Shizuku asked.
"Probably. I haven't tested it extensively yet." Menchi paused, then couldn't hold back. "Shizuku. What's your ability?"
Shizuku didn't answer. Her expression didn't change. She just stayed quiet.
Over in the clearing, Liam finally collapsed, Ken failing. He hit the ground, exhausted.
"Only extended it by a minute," he muttered. "Maybe gained a hundred aura. If I'd spent these two or three days purely training, I'd be at 6,500 or 6,600 by now. But I'm barely at 6,100. Guess balancing work and training is harder than I thought."
He stared up at the sky, thinking.
Right now, it's manageable. But if my aura pool increases to tens of thousands, maintaining Ken until I hit zero will take hours. Is that efficient?
Morel from the Hunter Association was considered a frontline expert with 70,000 aura. That made sense. There were twenty-four hours in a day. If draining your aura through Ken took half a day and didn't produce significant results, you were better off investing that time into precision, proficiency, breadth. Or developing abilities from other Nen categories. Enriching your tactical options.
If you developed an unbeatable ability, wasn't that more cost-effective than the thankless grind of polishing raw aura capacity?
An unbeatable Hatsu was exactly that: unbeatable. As long as your aura pool was sufficient to support it, you were fine.
But then Liam thought about the Chimera Ant Royal Guards. Monsters with hundreds of thousands of aura. Millions, even. An unbeatable ability didn't help if a creature with overwhelming power pinned you down with sheer killing intent, or blasted you with a simple aura attack that crushed your body before you could activate your Hatsu.
"Specialist versus Generalist," Liam muttered.
He glanced at Menchi, who was awkwardly enduring Shizuku's silence. He couldn't help but grin.
Menchi saw him watching and glared.
"Shizuku," Liam said, still smiling. "What's your ability?"
"Blinky," Shizuku said.
She raised her hand. A vacuum cleaner appeared out of thin air. Massive. Industrial-sized. With a cartoonish fish face and bulging eyes.
"You're a Conjurer too!" Menchi said, surprised.
"Blinky's ability is—" Shizuku started demonstrating.
Menchi quickly waved her hands. "Never mind! It's enough to know your type. You don't have to explain everything. I didn't tell you all the details about mine either."
Shizuku looked at Liam. He shrugged.
Menchi stood, took a deep breath, and activated Ren. She held it, then shifted smoothly into Ten, maintaining maximum output. Ken.
Shizuku followed suit.
Liam started eating the leftover food. After a while, he realized he was using their chopsticks.
The dishes with green seasoning went down easily. His depleted aura slowly regenerated. And thanks to the Star Mark on the back of his neck, the recovery effect was noticeably stronger than what Menchi and Shizuku were experiencing.
Liam watched while he ate. Shizuku's Ken output was significantly larger than Menchi's. But Shizuku's Ken wasn't as stable. Her aura flickered slightly, wavering at the edges.
Liam estimated Shizuku could maintain it for about two hours. That was around 7,200 aura.
Menchi would last maybe five minutes. Under 300 aura.
A little over five minutes later, Menchi collapsed, face-first into the grass. She lay there, gasping, staring at Shizuku, who was still standing, still maintaining Ken, not even breathing hard.
Menchi looked deeply, bitterly envious.
Somewhere on a ship crossing the ocean, Babimyna hung up the phone. His brief report to First Prince Benjamin was complete.
When he returned to Kakin, he'd submit a full written account of the mission.
Every detail.
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