Early the next morning, someone from Blanchett Company knocked on Liam's hotel room door. They handed him a box. The latest model smartphone. Free of charge.
Local businesses know everything. Liam weighed the packaging, watched the staff move to the next room, and followed quickly. He knocked on Shizuku's door.
"What phone?" Shizuku's voice came from inside. "No. There's no such thing."
"Yes, there is." Liam held up his own box, showing her through the crack in the door.
Shizuku opened the door wider, still looking confused. She accepted the box from the delivery person with a question mark practically floating over her head.
Liam found it funny. "Even if you forgot, why wouldn't you accept a free phone?"
Shizuku held the box at arm's length. "What if there's a bomb inside?"
Liam paused. That's... actually a good point.
Even though they were both competent Nen users, if they were unprepared and at close range, unable to activate Ten in time, even a small bomb could hurt them. Kill them, maybe.
"Alright," Liam said, walking into her room. "Let's say it might be a bomb. How do we check?"
Shizuku closed the door behind him. She thought for a moment, then tore a small slit in the plastic wrapping around the box. Not fully opened. Just enough.
She raised her hand. Aura coalesced, solidifying into a massive vacuum cleaner. Cartoonish fish face, bulging eyes, wide grinning mouth, long tongue lolling out.
"Blinky," Shizuku said, gripping the handle. "Suck up the bomb."
She flipped the switch to ON.
The vacuum's mouth opened wide. It made a loud sucking sound. The air pressure in the room shifted.
The phone box didn't move.
Nothing happened.
"Oh," Shizuku said. "I guess it's not a bomb."
"You can use your ability like that?" Liam said, genuinely surprised. "You could work security at an airport."
He knew Blinky could suck up objects and store them like a portable warehouse. He hadn't realized it could be used as a bomb detector.
Shizuku held up the vacuum cleaner. "Blinky can suck up anything I don't think is alive."
"What you think?" Liam sat cross-legged on the edge of her bed. "So it's subjective? If you convinced yourself a living person wasn't alive, could Blinky suck them in?"
Shizuku frowned. "How can a person not be alive?"
"I see." Liam nodded slowly.
If he remembered correctly, near the end of the Chairman Election arc, right before the Dark Continent prologue, Mizaistom, one of the Twelve Zodiacs, had recruited Kurapika to help catch a mole in the Zodiacs. Kurapika had used his Dowsing Chain to detect lies. And during that arc, they'd discussed a concept.
Subconscious.
Liam opened his own box, pulling out the new phone. He powered it on, half-listening to Shizuku unpacking hers, thinking.
According to Kurapika in the manga, the Dowsing Chain on his ring finger could only detect lies when he was face-to-face with a target.
But after he activated his Scarlet Eyes and entered Emperor Time, enhancing his Nen across all categories, the chain seemed to transcend his conscious awareness. It sensed subtle changes he couldn't consciously perceive and relayed them through the chain. Which meant even if he was separated from the target by a surveillance screen, even if he'd only met them once, even if they'd been trained to lie, the chain still worked.
Nen came from the heart. At least, that's what Liam believed.
The school led by Netero, the Hunter Association's chairman, was called Shingen-ryu. Heart Source Style. It was right there in the name.
The subconscious couldn't lie. You couldn't deceive your own subconscious.
Shizuku's subconscious believed living people were alive. Period. So even if she tried to convince herself a living person wasn't alive, it wouldn't work. She couldn't trick her own ability into sucking a human into Blinky.
In the manga, Kurapika had set an oath and restriction on his Chain Jail. "This ability can only be used on the Phantom Troupe. If I use it on anyone else, I will die." The core of that oath, the identification mechanism, was Kurapika's own subconscious. I believe this person is a Phantom Troupe member. Because it was subconscious, there was no room for deception. No way to say, "I'll pretend you're a Troupe member so I can use this ability on you."
Hence the saying: oaths and restrictions were extremely dangerous double-edged swords.
Without iron will and absolute certainty, it was best to avoid them entirely. If you were wishy-washy, changing your mind every five seconds, setting a harsh oath would only backfire. You'd kill yourself.
While Liam sat on the bed, distracted, playing with his new phone, Shizuku had already activated Blinky again.
"Blinky, suck up all the dust in the room."
The vacuum's mouth opened. A powerful suction pulled every speck of dust into its bottomless interior.
Liam looked around, impressed. "No wonder your room's cleaner than mine."
He grinned. "So it can suck anything in. But can it spit things out? Or does it just go in and never come out?"
"Blinky can spit out whatever it sucked in last," Shizuku said.
Liam frowned. "Only the last thing?"
That doesn't match what I've seen. In the manga, Shizuku had reached into Blinky multiple times in a row, pulling out different items. Mineral water. Bread. Bandages. Whatever she needed.
But maybe those were the things she'd sucked in "last," and she was just retrieving them one at a time.
Or maybe...
"I think," Liam said slowly, "Blinky can spit out anything it's ever sucked in. But your memory's bad, so you can only retrieve the last thing because that's all you remember."
Shizuku didn't protest. She didn't say "impossible" or "there's no such thing."
She just said, "Maybe."
Just like Kurapika didn't fully understand his own chains, the birth, development, and evolution of a Nen ability were personal. Unique. Liam was still exploring his Star Mark. It was entirely possible Shizuku didn't understand Blinky as well as she could.
And even if Blinky could only spit out the last thing, Nen abilities weren't static. In the manga, Chrollo had evolved Skill Hunter, his ability-stealing book, by adding a bookmark so he could use stolen abilities without holding the book. Who could predict something like that?
"Just keep thinking that Blinky can release anything it's ever sucked in," Liam said. "If you believe it strongly enough, maybe Blinky will respond. Abilities grow with their users."
"Okay," Shizuku said, dismissing the vacuum cleaner.
Liam sighed. "You answer everything I ask. I feel like I'm bullying you."
Shizuku looked confused. "You're the boss. First rule of The Ten: listen to the boss."
Liam didn't respond immediately. He just nodded.
After a moment, he stood and walked to the open window, looking outside.
"What's wrong?" Shizuku asked.
"We need to wait a bit," Liam said, turning to sit at the small table. "Let's practice again while we wait."