Chapter Twenty-Seven
Question Everything
Hey, how the hell are we at 27 chapters already? And whilst we are nearing the end of this arc, I have one more planned. :)
Silence roars in the ears of those in Prince Tserriednich's brightly lit chambers. Theta, the bodyguard who knows him best, looks pained; the other bodyguards, petrified.
Tserriednich has absorbed the news of Oito and The Troupe's escape with far too much ease.
That's enough to please Morena. She barely bothers to conceal her smirk.
His eyes flit to her. "Come here, sister."
Morena saunters closer, drawing out each step as she approaches the couch he uses as his throne.
His eyes flash with impatience, and she slows down more. Just to fuck with him.
He leaps to his feet and grabs her by her throat. Several guards flinch, like the cowards they are. "Did you set this up?"
"Freeing the Phantom Troupe? Never," Morena says sweetly.
"May I remind you that she's never hid herself. They're as likely to hunt her as you," Theta says quickly, as if she cares to prevent her boss from hurting Morena.
Morena could not care less; she's in full control here. But Theta's personal feelings intrigue her.
"Not that." Tserriednich looms over her. His beady eyes fixate on hers, as if the ancient philosophers were correct and truth can be read from her eyes.
Though he's the only one who doesn't much seem to care about her scar. If Tseriednich weren't the spawn of the royal family, Morena would figure him worthy of existence.
"Halkenburg. You convinced me to send him where Benjamin could kill him."
"Careful, now. That sounds like paranoia. I thought the Troupe were your culprits," Morena says calmly. Think you're paranoid. Question everything.
That is how chaos begins.
Tserriednich loosens his grip, but his eyes remain suspicious.
"Ultimately, Prince, with Halkenburg's murder you lost another rival. I would focus on that." Morena sniffs before sweeping out of the room.
She closes her eyes and summons her followers. Some are in the cafeteria. Some smart ones are fortifying the ship. Some beauty-stricken idiots are watching the daylit meteor shower above. Now, while her brother is being driven mad by his mind, is the perfect time.
People begin to move, fluid and normal, towards the deck.
Go crazy, she promises them as the door closes behind her.
A familiar, gently sweet odor is the first indication to Swinko-swinko that something is wrong.
With the exception of Duazal, Unma, and Oito – who, accompanied by various Troupe members, are off to reason with their progeny and that bastard daughter – the rest of the queens have banded together and refused all guard. Their mission should not be dangerous.
But with dull shouts above them, and this eerie smell, Swinko-Swinko is about to curse her confidence.
Tang Zhao sucks in her breath. It's the – the same –
Someone screams below, and Swinko-swinko has flashbacks to a few nights ago, when the ship was first attacked. Most likely by Tserriednich or Benjamin themselves.
They're on Tier 1, the upmost deck, far removed from the chaos below. But Swinko-swinko doesn't need to see it to know that green gas is once more seeping through the cracks in the ship.
So this is where the succession has taken us – the destruction of Kakin. Swinko-swinko almost regrets her confidence in her safety. She almost regrets the confidence that originally captured Nasubi's attention for a brief few months, over two decades ago.
Seiko tries to muffle a sob. Around them, the commoners they see wear alarmed expressions; people talk in hushed whispers about escaped prisoners, escaped passengers cannibalized on the continent, Nasubi's ghost coming to execute them all for not seeing the succession contest through.
Some clearly don't recognize the queens. Others do, but refuse to believe that queens would sneak about unaccompanied.
"No time to waste, women," Katrono snaps, quickening her pace. "We've got to take the wheelhouse."
But when the four queens raise their fists to open the door, the door swings open.
Captain Mercyn waves meekly. "Hello. We've been expecting your Highnesses."
"I beg your pardon?" Swinko-Swinko conjures her scariest expression, and Seiko's eyes quite literally shoot sparks.
Nen is new to them, but oh, how the queens like it.
"More like, I was expecting you." A handsome, clownish young man drapes his body across the wheel, wearing the cap of Captain Baha. "Hello. My name is Hisoka, but you know me as Captain Baha. I've come back from the dead."
After Morena's departure, after rumors of gas begin to surface, Tserriednich remains in his seat. As if by sitting on a couch dubbed a throne, he'll retain power for himself.
Morena has played him, but he always knew she was. He just didn't suspect she'd turn this quickly if power was what she sought.
Perhaps, he thinks, his own avarice has led to this. He typically assumes people are motivated by power and greed, and for the most part, he's right.
Morena isn't motivated to take power. She's motivated to destroy it.
He isn't thrilled that Halkenburg is dead, regardless of dangers that accompanied his moralistic brother's popularity.
He wishes he knew why.
Behind him, his otherwise grotesque Guardian Spirit Beast takes on the face of Halkenburg.
"Prince," Theta says, timidly.
"Is it king now, is it not?" Tserriednich looks towards the ceiling. The ancients are wrong. There's no answer in his treacherous sister's eyes, none in the ceiling, none in the sky.
The door flies open.
Beyond Netero stalks into Prince Tserriednich's room without knocking. To him, knocking is a useless custom anyhow. His father often insisted on common civilities that Beyond sees no need to follow.
"What are you doing here?" Tserriednich scoffs. His tension radiates throughout the room.
"I heard my friends escaped," Beyond says, with a genial shrug.
"Is there anyone who is not your friend?" Tserriednich can't help but smile. He does actually enjoy this man's company.
"Plenty, though there are none I am not a friend to," Beyond replies.
"I suppose this is my first crisis as a ruler, is it not? An opportunity." Tserriednich waits for Beyond's affirmation.
Beyond regards him kindly. At the end of all, even across Lake Mobius and on an unknown land of darkness, people don't change. They're still kids frantically scrambling to fill the holes caused by their fathers.
Be they spoiled princes, abandoned progeny abandoned for the hunters' cause, or assassins punished for their parents' misdeeds.
Tserriednich laughs to fill the silence. "You freed them, didn't you?"
"I did not. Though if they hadn't found a way, I would have, as I warned you before." Beyond crosses his arms. "They, and Morena's gas, are the least of your concerns."
"Oh? And could possibly be larger concerns?" Tserriednich considers laughing at his misfortune.
"Ai." Beyond looks grave.
"Those monsters?"
"They possess a child called Alluka Zoldyck. Yes, those Zoldycks."
"Are there any other Zoldycks?" Tserriednich rolls his eyes.
"Likely not." Beyond strokes his beard. "But I assure you, if the child convinces her kind to return for her family, we had best hope they aren't near us."
Beyond expects Tserriednich to inquire about the Ai, or how he knows them.
Instead, the Prince rests his chin on his hands. "Tell me, how did such a powerful family come to own a helpless child?"
"That," Beyond says, "is not your story to hear."
"Try me." Tserriednich purses his lips.
The ship lists to its side again.
Beyond chokes on his own sorrowful laughter. "They're here. They have to be."
"People are dying." Tubeppa hesitates by the broken window they've made in the ship's storage compartment. Most of her siblings have already escaped, but the familiar scent, the slight tinge of green in the air, tells her something dreadful is about to happen.
"More will die if you all don't survive to stabilize the kingdom," Biscuit replies.
"I can't save a nation if I flee from it," Tubeppa snaps.
"Why not? Is there a rule against it?" Biscuit taps her chin before reverting to her true, towering form. A single kick sends the lionhearted princess spiraling into the ocean.
"Biscuit…" Leorio hesitates. "I'm a doctor."
"Oh, you too?" She blows out her breath. "Listen: what good does sacrificing yourself do? If you're sick, who will heal? Let the queens handle this. Queens are never fragile."
"Or you'll kick me, right?" Leorio smirks.
"Yes." Biscuit points to the window, and Leorio scrambles to escape.
He can't help but close his eyes as he dives towards the sea.
After far too much time, Leorio realizes he is dry and no longer falling.
His eyes pop open.
Ai, sings a voice behind him.
A dark cloud clutches him, gliding towards the dark continent, and Leorio can't help a bloodcurdling shriek.
Hanzo shakes his head as Leorio, red-faced and out of breath, is dumped among the crowd of royals and black orbs.
"Not a word." Leorio shakes a fist at him.
"And you were supposed to guard us?" Kacho laughs.
"It seems we have many guests," says Miziastom, pointing to the trees.
Leorio chokes. Hundreds of Ai peek out from the forest. Watching them. Enough to kill them all.
"Don't worry about it." Cheadle steps out from behind a berry-filled bsh. "We're here to help."
"Cheadle, you're alive!" Leorio gasps. Behind them, another Ai carries Biscuit ashore, to his relief.
"Disappointed?" she retorts.
"No," he says sullenly. His face reddens. "With your hair, you blended right in to the forest."
Cheadle swallows the flutter in her heart. "Melody says there's more gas aboard."
"It seems so." Leorio raises his fist. "We have to save them!"
"I'm with him," says Machi's voice. She looks more bitter than Leorio has ever seen her, even while she gently rocks Woble in her arms.
"We will." Cheadle says. "As many as we can. As soon as we won't be certainly killing ourselves by boarding."
Leorio scans the trees. "Where's Alluka? And Gon and Killua and Kurapika?"
Machi points to the ship.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Leorio slaps his forehead. "Why am I always left behind?!"
The deck surges with panicked people running to and fro, too scared to join the continent, too scared to remain aboard.
We're all gonna die!
Help!
Shut up!
The King's magic will save us all!
Ah, yes, Morena recalls that line. The line spoken to her when her mother was starving on the streets, with a disfigured child. The line laughable, as people grew poorer and poorer.
The king's magic will save us all!
She vowed never to forget, and she hasn't. Even when her grandparents had taken her in – after her disgraced mother's demise – and Morena had regular meals and splendid clothing and education, she did not forget.
Don't cross the king; he's got magic.
Why is the king a king, if he hurt me? She asked Grandmother one day, when she was all of seven.
Nen, Grandmother replied.
But you've got nen, too. Why don't you do something.
The more people learn nen, the more we stand to lose, Grandmother replied. Would you like to be back on the streets?
And seven-year-old Morena hated herself because, of course, she did not want that.
"It's the Troupe! They've come back for revenge!" wails a man, falling to his knees before Morena as he tears at his face.
Ah, yes, people and their scapegoats. People and their excuses.
"If you're so scared," Morena says, "why not leap overboard?"
The man stares at her, and she decides he's not worth a kiss.
She steps up to the bow of the ship, in the exact spot Tserriednich stood on to execute Camilla. "People of Kakin!"
The panicked crowd doesn't listen. That's okay. They've been so consumed with nen magic that they've forgotten everything else.
There's no nen here. It's still far below, on the lowest deck, creeping upwards.
Just fear, and people seeing what they wish to see.
Of course, Morena's nen is proof that the king's magic is indeed real, but she'll convince them it's not. She'll take all their hopes and dreams and all those fuckers who use magic as an excuse will die faithless.
"You've been tricked!" she screams suddenly, and now people are listening, because people never want to believe they've been tricked.
Morena laughs hysterically as two of her underlings drags a keg of supposed beer towards her. A canister of copper dissolved in alcohol, mixed with perfume and her saliva. The drink to ruin their dreams, and save hers. "See this?"
Another underling, a thin kid not quite into his teenage years, hands her a torch.
She lights it, and flames leap across the keg.
Green flames, and a sickly sweet odor.
"It's not nen! Nen does not exist!" She roars with laughter. "Everyone – the princes, the king, the Phantom Troupe – they use their magic to deceive you! To keep you oppressed! Everything you've been taught is a lie – a lie that can do far more damage than this smoke!"
"Phinks, this is chaos." Oito surveys around the panicked crowd. Her plan to reason with Nasubi's bastard feels tenuous at best.
"Best not to draw attention
Oito pulls Phinks behind her as she ducks behind a lifeboat.
Phinks sniffs the smoky air again. He knew it. "Something smells different."
"I don't get it; why would she use science instead of nen? What's the point?" Oito shakes her head.
"To fuck with how people see the world, if you'll pardon my language, my queen?" Phinks flushes.
"Never apologize to me again," Oito commands, pointing at him. "Not for that, at least."
Phinks smiles slightly, but just as quickly, alarm strikes his face.
Closer to the flame, closer to the gas, people begin to act strangely. Instead of vomiting as before, they turn, like zombies, towards each other.
With bloodlust. Phinks's heart thumps. "What's happening?"
"How would I know?" Oito squints. "Are – are people using their own nen?"
Phinks switches into Gyo, which is not precisely his forte. Indeed, people begin to release frightening auras. They wrangle with their neighbors and attempt to devour another.
"It's all the same Aura. It's hers," he says. "Like she's possessing them."
Oito swallows her own fuck.
"Gentlemen and ladies, citizens of Kakin, slaves of no one, colonizing bastards. Kill each other," says Morena.
She snaps her fingers. As people begin to scream and rip at each other's faces, she strides through the crowd. No one approaches her. No one dares.
"She used nen for her final dismantling of nen and the faith of people," Oito surmises. "Brilliant."
She stands. "I'm not brilliant, but I'm still going to stop her."
"You won't!" Phinks grabs Oito. "You'll breathe it in!"
"She's headed away from the smoke." Oito pulls free, determined.
And then Phinks' worst fears come true.
Someone recognizes Oito.
"There's the queen! The liar!" screams someone.
A woman charges at Oito, and Phinks throws himself forward. He sends the attacker spiraling with his fist. "Get the hell out of here."
"Phinks!"
"I'm commanding you, queen. Grant me this one." He knocks two men back, and a third tries to tackle him.
"You'll really be okay?" she gasps.
"I didn't join the Phantom Troupe on a whim." Phinks tosses the man across the deck and cracks his knuckles. "Save your kingdom and your kid."
He tosses her a grin. "And maybe remember me when you do."
"I won't have to – you'll be by my side," Oito blurts, before dashing after Morena.
Chrollo, Kurapika, and Feitan stare in amazement at the death and bloodshed littering the deck. The Ai who carried them, along with Alluka as translator, squeak.
"And I thought things were bad a few nights ago," Chrollo quips.
"Get the Troupe!" Desperate for someone to blame, the more conscious citizens have turned their ire towards the lone Troupe member exposing his presence.
"Fei," says Chrollo, and the Number Two spider nods.
"Phinks – imbecile!" Feitan rushes through the riot as Phinks is overwhelmed by dozens of attackers, who wrestle him to the ground.
"Get off!" Feitan knock back several of the possessed. He cuts them with his sword, but just enough to hurt. Not to kill. He's not dumb enough to think that is a good idea given their goal.
"Feitan!" Phinks has never been gladder to see the small man guarding his back.
"Miss me?"
"I barely notice when you're here in the first place, shorty," he says with a grin as he readies himself for the next assault.
Alluka waves back towards the shore, and hundreds of dark, amorphous creatures begin to cross the ocean.
"Time to find your queen?" Chrollo asks.
Kurapika nods, but before he can move, the boy who assisted Morena collapses before them in a bloody heap.
"You okay?" Kurapika grabs him, to Chrollo's impatience.
"It's all a lie," sobs the kid. "Magic isn't real. There's no meaning – why are we even here?"
"Most of life is lie," says Chrollo, hesitating. After all, who's to say this kid is worthless? Not he. He wants to change that part of him. "At least you know what truth isn't, even if you've yet to find it."
Kurapika swallows. "I know it's hard, but … look around you."
The kid shakes his head. His eyes are squeezed shut. "Why? Just kill me."
"Open your eyes, please," Alluka calls.
Intrigued by the girl's voice, the child finally lifts his eyelids.
Creatures made of pure gas, singing the word Ai over and over, surround the ship. Hundreds, if not thousands of them.
"Just because magic doesn't work how you expected," Kurapika tells him, "doesn't mean it's not real."
