An explosion echoed across the water.
The floating mass of Pariston corpses shuddered slightly. At the edge of the "island," a cluster of bodies disintegrated under the impact of Liam's Spirit Gun, reduced to chunks of meat and bone fragments. Blood spread across the water in a widening stain.
Pariston watched with obvious fascination. His eyes tracked the pieces of himself scattering across the ocean surface like he was watching fireworks.
Liam could've sworn the guy's eyes were literally shining.
From inside the airship behind them, someone screamed.
Shizuku turned. One of the survivors had crawled to the gap in the hull, probably looking for fresh air or an escape route. He'd made it three steps before his brain caught up with what his eyes were seeing.
The ocean. Covered wall-to-wall with identical corpses. All wearing Pariston's face. All mangled to varying degrees. The water around them dyed red like someone had dumped fifty gallons of paint.
His legs gave out. His eyes rolled back. He collapsed on the spot.
"Well, that's unfortunate," Liam muttered, glancing at Pariston. "Look what you did. Scared the poor guy unconscious."
He turned to Shizuku. "I'm going to check on our Spider friend. You stay in the cabin and babysit. Make sure nobody does anything stupid. Last thing we need is someone dying because they panicked and jumped into shark-infested waters."
Shizuku nodded and stepped carefully across the carpet of Pariston bodies, heading back toward the airship's interior.
Pariston followed her like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Kortopi woke up to someone slapping his face.
"Hey. Wake up. You awake? Hey."
SLAP. SLAP. Both cheeks, alternating rhythm.
Kortopi's eyes cracked open. His entire body felt hollow. Empty. Like someone had scooped out his insides and left only the shell.
He focused on the figure crouched in front of him. A kid. Twelve, maybe thirteen years old. One hand raised, ready to deliver another slap.
The kid saw him stir and waved a hand in front of his face. "Oh good, you're up. Get moving. We've got work to do."
Kortopi's voice came out hoarse and quiet. "Did you control me? On the airship?"
His eyes, just visible through his curtain of gray hair, stared directly at Liam. "You're a Manipulator."
Just like Shalnark. One of their own Troupe members. Meet the conditions, and the target becomes a puppet.
The question was: when did this kid mark him?
"Are you deaf?" Liam didn't bother answering. He activated the Star Mark on Kortopi's forehead, hidden beneath the mess of hair. "I said get up. You've got work to do."
Kortopi's body moved without his permission. Muscles activated against his will. He stood, joints protesting, and followed Liam toward the jagged gap in the destroyed airship's hull.
Along the way, Kortopi got his first clear look at their surroundings.
This kid had used his ability. Forced Kortopi to manifest enough copies to "land" a bombed airship from thousands of meters in the air. The method was absolutely insane, wasteful, and somehow effective. They'd made landfall by creating an artificial island out of corpses and wreckage.
The "ground" beneath Kortopi's feet was literally thousands of Pariston copies. The scene looked like something out of a nightmare.
But most of the passengers had survived.
Liam walked ahead in silence, thinking.
If he remembered correctly, every item Kortopi copied with "Divine's Left Hand and the Demonic's Right Hand" came with a built-in En detection field. In the manga, Kortopi had copied an entire abandoned building complex, fifty structures total, and the moment anyone entered any of the replicas, Kortopi knew instantly. The En blessing on each copy acted like a security system.
Kortopi could also sense the location of copies by touching the original.
So theoretically, Liam could order Kortopi to touch this wrecked airship and trace the copied vessel that Chrollo and Machi had escaped on. Use the En to confirm whether the two Spiders were still aboard.
But after thinking it through, Liam scrapped the plan.
The Star Mark controlled actions, not thoughts. Even if he forced Kortopi to locate Chrollo's airship, Kortopi could just lie about it. Or refuse to speak. Or feed him false information.
Whether Liam could see through the lies was beside the point. The real problem was that it would reveal a critical weakness in his ability: he couldn't manipulate the target's will.
Kortopi was useful. Liam wasn't killing him yet. Which meant keeping his ability's limitations secret was the smarter play.
Besides, even if Chrollo and Machi hadn't flown far, what were they supposed to do? Come back?
This floating "Pariston Island" took up the entire viable landing zone. A massive airship approaching from above would be a sitting duck for his spirit-gun technique.
If they showed up now, Liam thought, I might actually have a shot at taking them.
Inside the airship, Shizuku stood guard at the gap with Blinky manifested beside her. The chaos had mostly settled, replaced by exhausted confusion.
For civilians, today had been... a lot. The airship exploding mid-flight barely registered compared to the horror show outside. And then some of the critically injured passengers had mysteriously healed after that weird kid and the girl with glasses touched them. Wounds closing. Broken bones mending. Near-death victims suddenly sitting up and breathing normally.
Miraculous. Terrifying. Pick one.
Most of the survivors huddled together in small groups, whispering nervously and shooting fearful glances at Shizuku every few seconds.
"What do we do now?"
"Did anyone get through to the outside? When's help coming?"
"The network's barely working. Signal keeps cutting out."
"What the hell even happened?! How are we still alive?!"
"Where's the Phantom Troupe? That guy said they were here! I'm going to kill them!"
"I was literally coughing up blood ten minutes ago. Why do I feel fine now?"
The survivors talked in anxious circles. Some peeked at Shizuku. Others stared at Pariston, who stood off to the side looking amused by the whole situation.
Pariston was observing the crowd carefully. He'd clearly noticed that several people who should've been dead or dying were now up and moving. Healthy. Functional.
Good thing Liam removed the Star Marks after healing them, Shizuku thought. Pariston might've guessed Liam has some kind of recovery ability, but he can't prove it's connected to Manipulation.
"That's impossible... it can't be..." A pale flight attendant stumbled out from the rest area, muttering to herself. Her colleague, huddled with the other survivors, called out nervously. "What's wrong? What happened?"
The attendant's voice shook. "People are missing. The count's wrong."
Someone suggested, "Maybe they fell out when we crashed?"
"I saw a bunch of people sneak off to the restaurant!" another passenger snapped. "Probably hoarding all the food for themselves."
"That won't work." The attendant shook her head, forcing a weak smile as she turned toward Pariston and Shizuku. "Excuse me. You're both Professional Hunters, right?"
Shizuku answered honestly. "I'm not a Professional Hunter."
Pariston raised his hand cheerfully. "Neither am I! And even if I were, none of you could afford my rates. Don't let the friendly face fool you. I'm expensive."
The attendant's expression fell. The other passengers glared at Pariston, visibly furious but too afraid to say anything.
We're all stuck in this nightmare together, and you're smiling about it?
The attendant returned to her original point, voice strained. "I searched everywhere. Counted multiple times. Two passengers are missing. Sisters. They..." Her voice cracked. "They might've fallen out during the crash."
Someone else spoke up. "The younger sister was really energetic, right? I thought they were mother and daughter at first. The little one looked like she was only seven or eight. What was her name again?"
"Yuna." Liam walked into the cabin at that moment, Kortopi trailing behind him like a prisoner. "Shizuku and I met her before."
Shizuku blinked. "We did?"
"Yeah. The kid was begging her sister to buy milk. They got into a whole argument about it." Liam paused, noticing Shizuku's blank expression. He reached over and pinched her cheek. "Never mind. Forget I said anything."
Shizuku looked confused. I definitely don't remember that.
The attendant went quiet, eyes reddening. If the sisters had fallen out during the crash, that meant they were gone. Dead. She ducked her head, wiping at her tears.
"Hey, everyone!" A group of fifteen or twenty passengers strolled over from deeper in the ship, acting casual and relaxed. They smiled and waved like nothing was wrong.
They also conveniently didn't mention that they'd just spent the last ten minutes ransacking every food storage locker, kitchen cabinet, and supply closet they could find. Everything edible or useful was now hidden away in a "safe location" for their personal use.
Two minutes later, they were kneeling in a line in front of Liam, faces bruised and swollen, handing over everything they'd stolen.
This included three deflated life rafts.
The flight attendant's face went white. "Those are the only three life rafts on the entire ship! What were you thinking?!"
The crowd erupted. Shouting. Accusations. Someone wound up for a punch.
Liam was already tuning it out. He'd seen this disaster movie plot a hundred times. Scared people doing stupid things, then getting self-righteous about it when caught.
"There's a signal!" someone shouted suddenly, staring at their phone. "I've got bars!"
"Call for help! Hurry!"
The survivors surged toward the person with the working phone, voices overlapping in desperate excitement.
Pariston tapped Liam's shoulder and pointed outside.
Liam turned.
In the bloodstained water near the edge of "Pariston Island," shadows moved beneath the surface. Fins cut through the waves.
Sharks. At least a dozen of them, circling the floating corpse raft, drawn by the scent of blood.
Pariston smiled that bright, infuriating smile. "Can your ability control animal too? Can you control any living creature? Fascinating. Though your strength seems a bit lacking. I doubt you could successfully mark me."
Is he seriously trying to provoke me right now?
Liam ignored the bait. Getting angry at Pariston was exactly what the bastard wanted. He fed on hatred like a parasite.
"Ah." Shizuku poked Liam's back with one finger. "Liam. Jaku and the crows."
"Oh." Liam froze. The three birds. Still in their room on the original airship. "I forgot to move them."