From Tsukuteku and Answer Bat's perspective, it felt as though they had been caught in the ship's crash, but in reality, a single section of the vessel had simply broken off and fallen away. The two of them just happened to be in that exact area.
Debris from the wreckage continued to plumet. Tsukuteku stared down at the sight of the ground below growing smaller and smaller, like tiny grains of sand.
"Talk about a rush... this was the best I could build on short notice."
He moved his legs as if pedaling a bicycle; that kinetic energy spun a propeller, allowing him to take flight. Amidst the falling wreckage of the severed section, Tsukuteku had managed to construct a single-person human-powered aircraft while in freefall.
He had scavenged materials by peeling off steel plates from the surrounding area. The most astonishing part was that this wasn't a Hatsu ability—it was achieved entirely through his own craftsmanship.
The plane carrying Tsukuteku arrived on the upper deck of the Sky Island, outside the ship's interior. Even though they were on the deck of a moving vessel exposed to the elements, the wind wasn't particularly strong. Since flying at altitudes above two thousand meters was prohibited by international law, the changes in atmospheric pressure and temperature at this height weren't dramatic. For an ordinary person, it might still be a harsh environment, but Tsukuteku was a Nen user, and it didn't hinder his activities.
Answer Bat was already on the deck. A Shadow Beast through and through, he possessed the skill to survive that level of trouble.
"When you make something, you usually have a finished image in your head. Or maybe a blueprint. You assemble the parts one by one according to that plan. That's why I hate it most when things don't go according to the schedule."
Two figures emerged from the hatch onto the deck. One was Chel, a woman dressed in Western knight-style attire. The other was Tokunosuke, an Oriental knight—or more accurately, a man styled like a samurai. The elite intelligence agents sent from Saherta appeared side-by-side.
"Hey, is the game of tag over already?"
Eliminating Tsukuteku was one of Chel's objectives. Furthermore, through the numerous elaborate traps they had bypassed to get here and the presence of his ally who appeared as if on cue, new points of suspicion had emerged. For now, they needed to make him spit out everything he knew.
The four of them felt an unwavering fighting spirit radiating from each other's aura. Battle was inevitable.
"Yeah, it's over. Next, let's see... how about we play ball?"
Tsukuteku pulled a handgun from his coat pocket. It wasn't the tranquilizer gun provided to the players. The echoing gunshot served as the signal for the curtain to rise on their stage.
A shadow darted toward Chel and the others as they easily dodged the bullet. Answer Bat closed the distance in a straight line. In response, Tokunosuke had already made his move.
His ability, [SHIKIGAMI], allowed him to create bird-type Nen beasts. Its greatest strength lay in the sheer numbers he could deploy in a single fight. It had the drawback of requiring him to prepare paper charms in advance and imbue them with aura, but the flip side was that during combat, he could activate them using the pre-stored aura without consuming much of his own.
Several Nen birds formed from the paper charms were released, swarming toward Answer Bat. However, the attack failed to connect. Playing cards thrown by Bat flew like shuriken, slicing the Nen birds in half. Tokunosuke hadn't expected to win with that alone, but he marveled at the brilliance of the interception.
Reinforcing playing cards with aura to use as weapons was unusual, but not a particularly unique technique. Any Nen user could mimic it if they tried. However, reading the trajectories of Nen birds closing in from multiple directions and shooting them down simultaneously was an incredibly difficult feat.
He hadn't expected the man to read the attack so perfectly on the first try. He had assumed Bat was just extra backup for Tsukuteku, but he raised his guard, realizing the man was a formidable opponent.
"I'll handle this one."
Chel stepped forward to respond. With a step so heavy it felt like the steel floor would sink, Chel closed the distance in an instant. She drew the sword—a cosplay item—hanging at her waist and swung it down from a high overhead position. In response, Bat clapped his hands together, and from between his white-gloved palms, a single walking stick appeared like a magic trick.
Sword and cane collided. However, the two did not remain locked in a stalemate. Bat's stick shattered Chel's sword. Though it looked like a sword, its material was merely plastic. It was only natural that no amount of aura reinforcement could make a non-weapon stand up to a real one.
From the sensation of that single exchange, Chel felt the aura overflowing from the stick. It looked like a common formal cane, but it was clear it had been used extensively as a weapon. If it was an object created through Conjuration, there was a possibility it possessed troublesome special effects.
"Not a bad aura. I'm an Enhancer, but what about you?"
"..."
Chel casually revealed her own category. Whether the enemy believed her or not didn't matter; she was prepared to manipulate the flow of battle either way.
The magician in black remained silent in response to her question. Against the cane-wielding Bat, Chel was empty-handed. However, the presence or absence of weapons was not a decisive factor for a Nen user. Aura reinforcement allowed one to turn their own body into a weapon. The more skilled the user, the more prominent this tendency became.
Tok stood behind Chel as she entered combat. Their usual formation involved her, with her superior close-quarters combat skills, taking the enemy head-on while Tok provided long-range support with his Nen birds. It would have been ideal to double-team the enemy, but the opposition also numbered two.
Tok turned his attention to Tsukuteku, who was making suspicious movements. An assault rifle was gripped in his hands. Had he hidden it somewhere, or had he assembled it on the spot?
Guns were effective weapons even against Nen users with sturdy bodies. While it was possible to tank a certain level of firepower with the naked body, one wouldn't escape 45-caliber rounds unscathed. Furthermore, high-rate fire weapons like machine guns made it easier for damage to get through as the increased number of hits thinned out the aura defense.
The assault rifle was a semi-automatic weapon that balanced power, rate of fire, and portability. A user like Chel, who excelled in physical reinforcement, could guard against it with Gyo, but it would create a massive opening.
Tsukuteku opened fire on Chel as she fought. The sound of gunfire echoed intermittently, like heavy rain striking an umbrella. It looked like cover fire for his partner, Bat, but he lacked the skill to properly back up a vanguard engaged in high-level melee combat.
In a word, it was sloppy. He fired as if he didn't care if he hit his own ally. Tok couldn't leave Tsukuteku alone to continue disrupting the fray. Leaving Bat to Chel, Tok sent multiple Nen birds toward Tsukuteku.
"Stop flying those eyesore flies around, dammit!"
The assault rifle spat fire, shooting down the Nen birds. However, compared to the number of bullets sprayed, very few birds were downed. Their flight speed and evasive maneuvers kept the hit rate low.
The Nen beasts Tok used were of the 'automatic-pilot' type, which meant they had a wide range of action and were suited for mass production, but carried the disadvantage of only being able to perform pre-programmed actions. Compared to 'remote-control' types directly operated by the user in real-time, it was difficult to make them move with precision unless an incredibly sophisticated program was written.
However, Tok had mastered the technique of writing those sophisticated programs. The [SENJI] divination script passed down in his homeland was a Nen technique specialized in the command of Nen beasts. By using this, he could handle complex situational responses far beyond common automatic-pilot beasts.
The AI formulas written into the paper charms predicted attack trajectories and performed automatic evasions. While Bat had seen through the Nen birds' movements, Tsukuteku's marksmanship wasn't enough to fully capture them.
"Tch, so annoying...!"
Losing his patience, Tsukuteku sprayed bullets in full-auto. Faced with that curtain of lead, even the Nen birds couldn't dodge everything and were shot down. However, while an assault rifle had a high rate of fire, it didn't carry the massive ammunition supply of a machine gun. Continuous full-auto fire would cause him to run dry in an instant.
"Dammit, I'm out... Wait, hold on!?"
The Nen birds that successfully navigated the barrage reached Tsukuteku's position. The birds converted their internal aura into power, attempting suicidal body slams. Each bird contained enough aura to represent a full day's worth of Tok's investment. They were no longer just Nen bullets, but Nen bombs. A single hit could be a fatal wound. Tsukuteku, standing still with an empty gun, had no way out.
"Just kidding."
Tsukuteku swung his arm. With that single sweep, the Nen birds were wiped out. Despite taking direct hits, Tsukuteku remained unhurt and hadn't moved a single step.
"Geez, I thought a mosquito bit me. Aren't you holding back way too much? Or was that your best shot?"
Brushing off the cheap provocation, Tok analyzed the situation calmly. Tok had no intention of overestimating his own power, but the previous attack had enough force to slaughter a Nen user. An Enhancer who boosted their defense to the limit might be able to block it, but was Tsukuteku really that kind of user?
"I see. Then I suppose I shall get a bit more serious as well."
He would find out. Tok threw a bundle of paper charms into the air. The charms caught in the wind, transforming into a flock of birds that danced in the sky. There were fifty of them. A violence of numbers that would be more than enough to handle ten average Nen users at once was dropped on a single man.
"Y-you're kidding? What's with that number!? What's wrong with your aura...?"
The birds swarmed in a straight line toward their prey. Not all fifty Nen bird bombs possessed equal power. Among the fifty, ten birds contained a week's worth of aura, and three contained a month's worth. Furthermore, they were mixed into the flock while hiding their presence with In.
"Whaaaaaaaa!?"
Tsukuteku couldn't even run; he became the target of the bombardment. Nen birds striking from every direction hit him one after another. It should have been enough power to erase even a Nen user without leaving a bone behind.
"Well, that was easy."
In the spot where the dust cleared, the man stood completely unhurt. Realistically speaking, it was an attack that should have been impossible to block with basic Nen. One could only assume he used some kind of Hatsu to defend.
Tok, having consumed not only the aura stored in the birds but also a massive amount of his internal reserves, stumbled while gasping for breath. Despite the attack being that exhausting, the enemy had taken no damage. However, it wasn't a total loss. While he couldn't grasp the full extent of the ability, he could form a rough hypothesis.
First, it wasn't a technique that increased defense through physical reinforcement. In the first place, the attacks hadn't hit. Transparent barriers had been created to protect Tsukuteku, and the Nen birds had been stopped there.