Moro's Discovery

Shadow's End had two manipulation abilities—

It could take away a shadow and control the target's actions through commands. This was called the Puppet Master Technique.

It could invade the target's soul and take control of their body. This was called Headhunter's Art.

Moro's line of deduction had been correct.

While Kawahara was using Headhunter's Art, any injury suffered by the controlled body would be directly transferred to Kawahara, including death.

That was why Kawahara had reacted so strongly to Moro's probing attack, immediately canceling his ability and losing any chance to follow up.

Thinking of his hasty actions just now, Kawahara could not help but feel regret.

He carefully recalled the situation. If he had been calm enough at the time, he would have noticed that the Nen ball's trajectory had actually been off.

So long as he had kept his composure and maintained the disguise, he would have had a chance to achieve his objective.

But it was too late to say any of that now.

"Even though I failed..."

Kawahara lowered his gaze, his right thumb continuously rubbing the hilt of his sword as he thought about the Nen ball Moro had deliberately fired wide.

When faced with uncertainty, would he do everything possible to avoid killing innocents by mistake...?

That could be exploited.

Kawahara suppressed the regret in his heart.

Even if his ability's traits had likely been exposed, he still had room to maneuver.

With that thought, Nen burst from Kawahara's body. He stepped into the pitch-black silhouette before him, and his whole body sank into the shadow, vanishing without a trace.

His Shadow Flow Technique allowed him to travel freely through the shadows of ordinary people within a certain range, but this ability could not coexist with the Puppet Master Technique.

Because people controlled by the Puppet Master Technique had no shadows.

Likewise, once he canceled Headhunter's Art, the controlled person would die on the spot and lose the shadow that allowed him to use the Shadow Flow Technique.

That was precisely why people had been tied to chairs inside the room.

After slipping into the shadows, Kawahara used the Shadow Flow Technique to choose his next target for Headhunter's Art—

A security guard aboard the airship!

At that moment.

Inside the airship's surveillance room.

A security guard watched the numerous monitor feeds before him with a tense, anxious expression. Holding a walkie-talkie, he continuously relayed the situation to his colleagues.

Then suddenly, the guard's expression, even his mouth and body movements, froze at once.

Kawahara had seized control of the guard's body with Headhunter's Art.

Click.

Kawahara switched off the walkie-talkie and turned on the broadcast microphone.

"Attention, passengers. Attention, passengers. The airship is currently under attack by criminals, but our security personnel have already brought the situation under control. Please do not worry."

"To further ensure your personal safety, please proceed to the upper deck cockpit as soon as possible. I repeat, all passengers, please proceed to the upper deck cockpit as soon as possible!"

Using the security guard's body, Kawahara issued an announcement to the entire airship. He then turned off the microphone, raised his head slightly, and looked at the screen displaying the cockpit.

So far, he had only planted control triggers in a little over fifty people.

As long as the triggers were not activated, these people were ordinary individuals unaffected by any ability, and they could also serve as stepping stones for the Shadow Flow Technique.

Kawahara's broadcast solved the problem of how to send these people before Moro.

It also swept up the passengers whose control he had not yet managed to obtain.

It was foreseeable that—

A huge crowd of passengers would flood into the cockpit.

That way, amid the chaos, he could maximize the usefulness of his dormant puppets.

This was a practically unsolvable move against Moro.

Unless Moro's bloodlust rose and he killed every passenger and crew member to eliminate the potential threats.

"You rushed to the cockpit first because you wanted to land the airship, didn't you...?"

Kawahara stared at Moro on the surveillance feed and muttered, "I won't let you succeed. Now, let me see how you'll deal with this... Hm?"

As he watched the feed, Kawahara suddenly saw Moro looking directly toward the camera.

For a brief moment, Kawahara felt as though he had met Moro's gaze.

He noticed...

Kawahara realized it, his eyes narrowing sharply. Then the surveillance feed jolted and turned to static.

Moro had destroyed the camera in the cockpit.

"..."

Kawahara frowned.

Though he believed his move was practically impossible to counter, he also felt that things would not be so simple.

Inside the cockpit.

Moro did not pay much attention to the broadcast just now.

"Strange."

What concerned him more was the clear targeting shown by the other party.

Was making such a huge fuss really just to stop him from interfering with the airship's flight?

With an ability like that, wouldn't it be better used against Kanzai?

Hm?

No...

Something was wrong.

Moro looked up at the destroyed surveillance camera.

From the initial Aura fluctuations and the approximate direction of the loud noise, it could be basically confirmed that someone had attacked the client under Kanzai's protection.

That was Kanzai of the Twelve Zodiacs...

Yet they had split off their strength to deal with a bodyguard Hunter of that caliber?

And on such a large scale, at that!

Moro abruptly realized that whoever had controlled the captain, as well as the person who had made the broadcast just now, were very likely not targeting Kanzai's client.

So—

They had been targeting me from the very beginning!?

"I nearly got misled."

Moro's expression shifted slightly.

If that bodyguard Hunter had not been Kanzai, he truly would not have been able to be certain.

Having noticed this, Moro turned his gaze toward the two controlled pilots.

He had already observed them carefully just now.

The ability controlling the captain and co-pilot was a command-type manipulation ability.

This type of manipulation ability usually only appeared on puppets.

The captain and co-pilot before him were already dead.

Until the manipulator gave them new commands, they would only act according to their current orders and would perform no other actions.

This made Moro temporarily abandon the thought of landing the airship safely, and he no longer intended to remain in the cockpit.

Originally, he had planned to use delaying tactics here against that Manipulator.

The reason for that decision was his belief that the Manipulator's ability system had certain flaws.

An overly diverse set of abilities could indeed raise the ceiling of possible applications, but it would inevitably come with multiple corresponding restrictions.

Two modes of manipulation, along with the ability to benefit from the "number of controlled targets"...

Based on that, Moro believed that the Manipulator using this ability surely had to bear the cost of exponentially increased Nen consumption.

If Kawahara could have seen every one of Moro's deductions about the current situation from beginning to end, his heart would certainly have skipped a beat.

After all—

Kawahara was in the dark, while Moro was in the open.

The information available to them was unequal.

Yet Moro could still perceive the truth amid such a chaotic situation.

Thud—

Having changed his mind, Moro pushed open the cockpit door and walked straight out before the passengers could swarm in.

Then, while expanding his En, he headed toward the location where the Aura fluctuations had come from earlier.

He needed to confirm Kanzai's situation and decide what to do based on how matters developed.

And considering the worst-case scenario, he had to prepare himself for the possibility of the airship crashing.

As Moro moved toward Kanzai, the En he had spread out suddenly gave feedback from touching Nen.

"Hmm?"

Moro sharply turned to look at the observation deck outside.

On the floor of the observation deck roughly ten meters away was a long string of obscure symbols glowing with Nen.

"Divine script?"

Moro did not understand divine script at all, but he could barely recognize it. That was probably one of the advantages of being a transmigrator.

Why... was there divine script here?