Right. They have your marks too. I forgot... Shizuku's mental voice echoed inside "her" head, sounding almost self-reflective. I really don't seem very smart...
"Don't say that," Liam said through Shizuku's mouth, studying her face in the bathroom mirror. She looked freshly awake, slightly unwilling to accept the criticism. "Could also mean you care a lot about animals."
The comment made Shizuku's consciousness go quiet for a few seconds.
On the windowsill, the rock sparrow Jaku had just woken up. It looked energetic. Ready to bounce around and cause problems.
When "Shizuku" walked out of the bathroom, the bird tilted its head and stared at her.
"What are you looking at?" Liam walked over. Jaku started to hop away, but "Shizuku" glared at it. The bird's body froze involuntarily, and Liam scooped it up, squeezing it gently. "You don't recognize me after I change bodies? I think this little sparrow's about to rebel!"
"Chichi! Chichi!" Jaku chirped happily and pecked at "Shizuku's" hand with excitement.
Liam let go in mock disgust. The bird flapped back to the windowsill.
"Shizuku" put her hands on her hips and looked around the hotel room. "Not bad. What'd you eat for breakfast?"
Bread. Milk.
"Eat more meat, Dora-san," Liam said earnestly through her mouth. "We're hitting the Heavens Arena in a few days. Gonna climb that tower. Can't do it on carbs alone."
Okay...
"Alright, my train's here too." Liam paused, then walked back to the sink to look at Shizuku's reflection in the mirror. He made her face break into a bright, sunny smile. "Haha! I've never seen this expression on you before! Anyway, I'm leaving. Buy your ticket to the Heavens Arena soon, okay?"
Liam was about to withdraw from her consciousness and release control when Shizuku asked: Won't Liam give my body orders?
"Huh?" He was confused. "Don't get weird on me now."
When the Star Mark is executing commands, it's easier for Liam to sense it, right?
"Shizuku" smiled. "I didn't even leave standing orders on Lumos's mark. Why would I do that to you? You're not my pet. If you miss me, just call. Maybe I'll miss you too. Okay, I'm really leaving this time."
"Oh. Okay..." Shizuku heard her own voice again and realized she'd regained control. Liam was gone.
She looked at herself in the mirror, remembering what Liam had just said. She tried to smile.
It didn't work. She didn't have that kind of intense emotion.
Shizuku pressed her index fingers to the corners of her mouth and pushed them up into a smile.
When she let go, a faint version of the expression lingered in her reflection.
Clack-clack-clack-clack...
The trains in this region were older models. They made a wonderfully antique rattling sound as they sped along the tracks.
Liam sat by the window, maintaining Ten around his entire body. A basic exercise. The most fundamental of fundamentals.
The carriage was noisy, making complex Nen training impractical. So he stuck to basics, occasionally condensing aura in his eyes, practicing his Gyo reaction time and proficiency.
With my current reserves, I could maintain Ten and Gyo for a full day without feeling serious fatigue.
The hour-and-change journey passed quickly. Liam entertained himself with training, not bored at all.
His phone vibrated.
Text from Shizuku: "Bought the ticket." Attached was a photo of a train ticket.
"Dora, be safe." Liam typed on his phone's keyboard.
A sudden burst of excitement rippled through the train car.
He looked up. Out the window, on the distant horizon, a mountain range towered into the sky like it was trying to pierce the clouds.
The only mountain that would make passengers react like this was Kukuroo Mountain. Their destination.
"Almost there."
Liam snapped a photo of the distant view and sent it to Shizuku.
The phone vibrated. Shizuku's reply: "Liam, be safe."
The train stopped. Liam got off amid a crowd of tourists chattering excitedly about the Zoldycks.
He wore casual sportswear, a shoulder bag slung over one arm, a baseball cap pulled low. At his current height, about 1.5 meters, he blended into the crowd easily. Forgettable.
Outside the station, tourists pointed excitedly at Kukuroo Mountain in the distance, snapping photos, discussing rumors.
Everyone's here for the same reason, Liam thought. Visit the assassin family's lair.
Kukuroo Mountain, home of the Zoldyck family, had become a major local tourist attraction. Visitors came daily. Several towns at the mountain's base offered scheduled tour buses and professional guides. Liam found the bus stop with help from a fruit stand vendor and thought maliciously, Given the Zoldycks' resources, they probably own half this mountain range. Bet the Republic of Padokea has partnerships with them at every government level.
"Hello, passengers! Please look ahead. That's Kukuroo Mountain, home of the notorious Zoldyck assassin family..." The tour guide, an attractive woman with a professional smile, held a microphone and addressed the bus. "Kukuroo Mountain stands 3,722 meters above sea level. It's a dormant volcano surrounded by an endless forest. The Zoldyck family home is somewhere on that mountain, but no one's ever seen it."
Her voice was clear and practiced. "There are ten members of the Zoldyck family. Great-grandfather, grandparents, parents, and five children. All ten are professional assassins."
"Next, the bus will follow the mountain road and get as close to their territory as permitted..."
Liam paid more attention to the other passengers than the tour guide's spiel. They all looked like ordinary civilians. No unusual expressions. Nobody who screamed "Nen user" to him.
After winding through mountain roads for what felt like forever, the bus finally stopped in front of a massive city wall.
"What a wall..."
"How high is that? Fifty meters?"
Passengers exclaimed as they stepped off the bus.
The tour guide smiled. "The forest and mountain behind this wall are the Zoldyck family's private territory. If you want to enter, you have to go through the small door by the guard station..."
The wall's gate towered dozens of meters high. Dragon head statues crowned both sides at the top, giving it a majestic, domineering appearance. Ancient. Imposing. Radiating cold lethality. Exactly what you'd expect from a family of assassins.
By comparison, the guard station at the gate's base looked insignificant. The small door next to it, even more so.
Inside the guard station sat a bald, middle-aged man with a bit of a gut. He didn't seem particularly interested in the tour bus's arrival, just kept reading something idly.
"Since there's a guard, let's try asking! Maybe he'll let us in for a quick look?"
"This is the world-famous Zoldyck family!"
Encouraged by the tour guide's introduction, tourists swarmed the guard station, knocking eagerly.
"Huh?" The tour guide noticed a young man in a baseball cap walking past the guard station toward the massive gate itself. She called out kindly, "That gate's actually sealed shut! It doesn't open, so—"
The guard station was jammed with curious tourists. The bald man, Zebro (regarded as a guard by outsiders but actually the estate's groundskeeper), looked troubled by the crowd. Among them, he noticed the kid in the cap walking toward the Testing Gate. His gaze drew other tourists' attention. "Huh? You can go through the gate?" Several people followed curiously.
"Hey!" One tourist tried to push the door. It didn't budge.
Others refused to believe it and took turns trying. Without exception, everyone failed. They pushed until exhausted, but the door wouldn't move even a millimeter.
People looked up at the towering gate. From its shape, it appeared to be seven nested gates stacked from outside to inside, high to low. Seven gates that look impressive but can't actually open? Is this thing just decorative?
"Let me try!" A young, muscular tourist rubbed his hands together and shouted enthusiastically. He planted his palms against the door. Arm muscles bulged. Sleeves strained. His feet slid backward against the ground. His face turned red. His muscles trembled. Two small divots formed under his feet from the pressure.
The gate didn't move.
Finally, the young man exhaled long and hard, dropping his hands in exhaustion. He shook his head. "I can move a thousand-kilogram crate, but this door's totally fake! It won't budge at all!"
Other tourists murmured agreement, impressed by his effort.
If you can push a thousand kilograms, I'm the Easter Bunny, Liam thought.
The Testing Gate had seven nested doors equipped with an automated sensing system. Different levels of force opened different numbers of doors. Specifically, the innermost and smallest door weighed two tons per side—left and right combined made four tons total. You needed four tons of force just to fully open the first door.
A thousand pounds was only half a ton. Not even close to opening the first door halfway. Three-quarters short.
Each additional door among the seven doubled the required force.
First door: 4 tons total. Second door: 8 tons. Then 16, 32, 64... To open all seven doors? A full 256 tons of terrifying brute strength.
Liam didn't know any Zoldycks personally in this world. He'd come here not because reading the manga made him think they'd be friends, but because he wanted to test himself against the gate.
You can't find equipment this good, this accurate, this high-quality in any gym.