This was the lodging district, a cluster of facilities meant for accommodation. Even though it was just one section of the ship, there was no sense of cramped discomfort. It was designed to resemble a first-class hotel.
A man stepped into the lobby, which exuded a classic, refined atmosphere. Dressed in worn street fashion with dreadlocks, the Black man's appearance might have seemed out of place in such a setting.
Furthermore, he carried a boombox on his shoulder, blasting music at a high volume. In an age where small music players and earphones were ubiquitous, one might wonder why he clung to such an anachronistic style. Regardless, had this been a real hotel, he likely would have been kicked out immediately.
Stepping gracefully to the beat of the music was the dance-type iTuber, J.J.J. Simon. And in this place, another iTuber was waiting for him.
"Here I coooome!!"
Leaping from the shadows was a small man in a Santa Claus costume—the prank-type iTuber, Jack High. He pulled colorful balls out of a large gift bag and hurled them at Simon.
The balls struck the ground and burst with loud pops. They were crackballs, a type of firework.
"Child's play."
However, the only effect was a loud noise. They were nothing more than prank items. Since the volume of the boombox largely drowned them out, the surprise factor was essentially halved.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, one of the balls detonated with an explosion incomparable to the others. A flash of light so bright it was impossible to look at directly filled the area. It was no mere firework.
A stun grenade. A weapon designed to strip an enemy of their consciousness with overwhelming light and sound. He had mixed the real threat in with what seemed like a trivial attack. If it exploded at close range, the force was enough to knock out an ordinary person.
"...As I thought, child's play. Pranking and fighting are two different things, Jack."
But Simon didn't seem shaken in the slightest. Even the stun grenade attack ended without so much as surprising him. In the first place, Simon hadn't even been looking. From the moment he entered the lobby, he had been moonwalking. In other words, he was facing Jack while his back was turned.
Confronted by Simon's seemingly ridiculous attitude, Jack found himself unable to move closer. As someone who had at least dipped his toes into the world of Nen, he had the intuition to sense a certain gap in their power. He couldn't help but acknowledge the strength of the man before him.
Jack's judgment was correct. Simon was an Emitter, and the name of his Hatsu was Breakin'. it was a terrifying technique that forced anyone he struck into a state of Zetsu.
The new frontier of dance he had pioneered, 3J Flutter, was inspired by ancient martial arts passed down in the remote regions of the Aizien continent. It was a martial art designed for the application of Nen, and while it differed from the currently mainstream Shingen-ryu school, it was a technique that had been inherited continuously in that land since ancient times.
The ancient martial art he studied was deeply connected to acupuncture and moxibustion. Aura was referred to as 'ki,' and that energy flowed through the Nadi—the meridians spread throughout the human body—reaching every part of the organism. The monks sought out the location of these meridians, and by becoming aware of them, they lived lives where daily existence and training were inextricably linked.
To them, living itself was training and the pursuit of martial arts. Though they lived in poverty, none were unhealthy. For Simon, the motivation for his training was simply to get stronger, but he was so moved by the monks' way of life that he wondered if he could popularize the philosophy of their martial arts in a form that more people could engage with.
The result was 3J Flutter. As the creator of this dance, which aimed to fuse 'Dance,' 'Martial Arts,' and 'Medicine,' Simon was intimately familiar with the human meridians. They were the paths of energy, the key to all activity, and simultaneously, vital pressure points. His Hatsu, Breakin', was a technique where he would send his aura into the enemy's body upon contact, severing the flow of the meridians.
The longer the contact, the larger the range and duration of the effect. If the opponent offered no resistance, it was possible to keep their entire body in Zetsu for as long as he touched them. If it were a simple Manipulation ability, he could even use this to exorcise Nen. He had said he would 'punch Pomerni back to his senses,' and that wasn't entirely a lie. He believed that if he did so, he might be able to extract information about the mastermind from Pomerni's own mouth.
Naturally, during combat, it was difficult to put the enemy's entire body into Zetsu. At most, he could only force the touched part into Zetsu for an instant. But even so, it was an exceptionally powerful ability. Forcing a struck part into Zetsu was the same as reducing its defensive power to zero. No matter how much aura was used to bolster defenses, it was made meaningless.
While Jack naturally didn't know the details of Simon's ability, he stood frozen, unable to step forward even though Simon was exposing his back so defenselessly. 'If I get close, I'm done.' His instinctive caution was screaming that warning.
"Move. I've got no business with you."
Though he had been attacked, Simon showed no sign of actively wanting to fight. He was silently signaling that if Jack withdrew now, he wouldn't lift a finger. However, the thought of running didn't occur to Jack.
"Did you see the video Pomerni broadcast? He took hostages to threaten us!"
"It wasn't Pomerni. It was someone pulling his strings from the shadows."
"It's all the same! Someone I know is in there! I don't want to fight if I can help it, either. But I have to fight, whether I like it or not...!"
Jack didn't back down, even as he trembled. Someone very important to him must have been captured. He was being moved like a pawn in this crazy game, exactly as the enemy intended.
Simon felt a sense of liking toward Jack's character. No one can remain calm when their loved ones are in danger. That emotion is a fundamentally human one. However, from a warrior's perspective, he was still green.
"Cool your head. If you let yourself be trapped by those emotions, you're playing right into the enemy's hands. Even if you manage to win your way through the game and reach Pomerni's location, you'll end up unable to do anything. That's what the hostages are for."
"...Shut up! What do you know?! I bet you don't have anyone you know in there! That's why you can just stand there smirking! You can say that because you think it's someone else's problem!"
"Yeah, it's someone else's problem. Then let me ask you: what do you know about me?"
Simon displayed his Ren. Jack was overwhelmed by the sheer pressure of it. So much killing intent was packed into the aura that it almost produced a phantom image of an Asura.
This was a special way of refining aura called Chakra in the ancient martial art he practiced. 'Chakra' was a word meaning circle or wheel, and it referred to the six centers where ki was particularly concentrated within the meridians. By rotating the ki stored in these secret points, one could generate explosive aura power.
In Shingen-ryu, this would be called Ren, but the process of reaching the result was slightly different. While Ren awakened aura all at once, the Chakra method increased power gradually through stages.
To exert full power, one had to gradually accelerate the rotation from the first to the sixth Chakra, which took a significant amount of time. Furthermore, if even a slight disturbance in emotion occurred, the acceleration would fail, and the ki would have to be refined again from the first stage.
The reason Simon danced while playing music on the battlefield was also because of this secret technique. To him, dancing was a type of ritual that allowed him to immerse himself in his own world. It was a means to concentrate his mind, unaffected by emotion.
In exchange for that troublesome process, the total amount of power that could be drawn out far exceeded Ren. Though the rotation of the Chakra had only reached the third stage, he was already exerting power that surpassed the normal amount of manifest aura Simon could draw out through Ren.
"Tch, it stopped at the third... To let my anger show this much, I'm still green."
Simon and Pomerni were friends in their private lives. They were on the kind of terms where they would meet up occasionally to share a drink. He knew Pomerni's personality well. He could say with certainty that Pomerni wasn't the kind of person who would come up with a game like this. That was why he felt an extraordinary rage toward the mastermind who had used and involved his friend.
On top of that, there was this latest outrage of taking hostages. Simon had used his special invitation tickets to bring along several of his dance friends. If anything happened to those friends, he could never forgive the enemy. And more than that, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.
But even if hostages were used as a shield, even if the worst-case scenario occurred, what had to be done remained the same. If one lost sight of the big picture, no one would be rewarded, and the enemy's schemes would simply be fulfilled.
"You don't want to fight, but you have to? You can't save anyone. Not a man who can't even find the resolve within himself for the reason he swings his fists."
Simon set down his boombox and finally turned around to face Jack. With that as the signal, the battle began.
"Waaaaaaaagh!!"
Jack lunged forward head-on, letting out a roar as if to forcefully psych himself up. They were in a state where they couldn't be stopped by words or persuasion. In that case, there was nothing left but to let their fists do the talking.
"I can't promise that I'll definitely save them. But even so, I'll tell you this. Leave it to me."
They were words he didn't need to say. He had no obligation to shoulder an unnecessary burden of resolve. Still, it was at least a small mercy shown to a man trying his hardest to fight for the sake of someone else.