Benjamin's Military Machine

Five tiers, royal family on top, steerage below; martial law throughout; phone lines and corridors military-controlled; the Tier 2/3 bulkhead openable only from above. Balsamilco tells Benjamin's soldiers the first two tiers are the contest's only 'hunting grounds' and holds 'Operation Assault' in reserve.

Benjamin's opening plan — kill Tserriednich first — is shelved on Balsamilco's advice: Benjamin cannot see the beasts, and Kurapika's broadcast burned the assault's surprise. Instead Benjamin's soldiers will embed as rival princes' guards, report everything, and hold license to kill 'in self-defense.'

Benjamin's soldier Vincent forces his way into Room 1014 as its assigned 'guard' and shoots the servant Sandra dead in the name of self-defense — the military machine testing exactly how much murder its paperwork can absorb.

Kurapika drains Vincent with Steal Chain and bluffs an ability that 'forces confessions.' Vincent kills himself rather than talk; Balsamilco reads the bluff as evidence Kurapika is a Manipulator — exactly the misdirection intended. Babimyna is sent as Vincent's replacement.

Camilla plans to kill Benjamin first, then Halkenburg, and orders her mother to get close to the Ninth. Benjamin's soldier Musse eavesdrops and plans to secure physical proof with his ability, Secret Window.

From minute differences invisible to anyone else, Furykov concludes Kurapika is a Conjurer who activates his abilities with his right hand. Babimyna, in parallel, decides the 'confession-forcing Manipulator' story is cover for something else.

Camilla leaves her quarters for Benjamin's, telling Musse to cooperate or die. The first direct prince-on-prince strike of the contest is in motion.

Cornered into Camilla's assassination run, Musse shoots and kills the Second Prince. Her counteractive ability Cat's Name revives her at the cost of her killer's life: Musse dies on the spot, and Camilla orders his belongings burned.

Killing one of Unma's reassigned guards on the way, Camilla walks into Benjamin's quarters and shoots him. He refuses to strike back — retaliation is what her ability wants — and has her arrested instead.

Benjamin's own ability is revealed: he inherits the Nen abilities of loyal soldiers who die under his command. Vincent's Air Blow and Musse's Secret Window already sit as stars in his palm — every posted observer is also a premium collected on death.

Benjamin's soldier Rihan reveals Predator: from deliberate ignorance, he analyzes a target ability and conjures its natural predator. He designates Salé-salé's smoke-charming Guardian Spirit Beast — the first move in a quiet beast-hunting program.

Benjamin's observers file reports: Tyson's 'eye-wogs' harvest aura from readers of her book, Tubeppa's beast brews drugs with a partner, Luzurus's sets desire-shaped traps, Halkenburg's enhances a fellowship's Nen. Shikaku, assigned to Halkenburg, suspects memory revision and requests backup.

Tried before the Supreme Magistrate over the deaths of Musse and Wolfe, both elder princes are confined to the VVIP area under monitoring until Musse is found — a search that cannot succeed, since Benjamin quietly watches Camilla through the dead man's Secret Window.

Rihan confirms the smoke beast's dictatorship mechanics — maximum devotion in close associates within hours — then summons Predator, which consumes the Guardian Spirit Beast whole. Drained for 48 hours, he swaps posts with Yushohi, whose Nen is 'most suitable for assassinations.'

Ordered by Benjamin to kill the returning Halkenburg, Shikaku's conjured Culdcept card is pierced by an aura arrow from the prince's bow. One of Halkenburg's guards drops; Shikaku rises asking for the Prince's orders — the ability robs the target's will at the cost of one follower's body.

With the Eighth Prince's beast already devoured, Yushohi completes the kill: Salé-salé stops breathing in his bed as attendants scream for help, and Yushohi radios Benjamin that the mission succeeded. Officially, illness.

Sumidori-in-Shikaku rings Luzurus's doorbell, shouts loyalty to Benjamin, and shoots himself — a staged suicide at a staged address. Sumidori wakes safely in his own body; Shikaku is dead, and Benjamin now names Halkenburg his biggest threat.

The Fifth Prince reasons from the missed banquet performance that her brother was killed, and from the soldier rotation that she is Benjamin's next target. She starts building countermeasures and concludes she needs a partner like Kurapika.

Debriefing Kanjidol, Balsamilco raises three objections to the obvious theory — including his cornerstone hypothesis that princes (and their beasts) cannot directly kill princes, since royal-murder is capital even for royals. The key question he assigns: why did Shikaku die in front of Room 1007?

A fourth aura rumbling, then Vict's breaking voice — something about a bow, about Halkenburg being invincible — then screaming. Benjamin's palm stars confirm Shikaku dead but Vict alive: taken, not killed. Balsamilco proposes arresting Halkenburg to sever him from his men.

The coin Benjamin's observer secretly pocketed on day one changes value. Zhang Lei's beast is running a compounding scheme nobody yet understands — including the thief holding its seed capital.

Alone, Balsamilco loads a shoe-mounted dispersal rig with TSK-17, a failed military pathogen that denatures in seconds in open air but kills by organ failure in half a day if inhaled — then erases itself from the corpse. His target: erase Halkenburg at their courthouse cross-examination.

Balsamilco walks into the Tier 2 Ministry of Justice confident Halkenburg has no followers near — and finds Vict signing to him in military code, strangers watching from corridor ends, and twelve civilian supporters powering the bow around the corner. Halkenburg fires Grimmel the Dissonance through the wall.

The arrow lands: Halkenburg's mind now pilots Benjamin's chief strategist while his own body lies 'ill.' On the phone, Benjamin suspects manipulation, cannot prove it, and orders 'results' anyway — playing along with the thing wearing his captain.

The First Queen takes a call, approves 'the kind of choice you would make,' and tells Prince Halkenburg she is proud of him — quietly confirming the letter's rumor that Benjamin's own mother bore the Ninth Prince and hid him with Duazul for his safety.

Poisoned with TSK-17 by his own possessed hand, Halkenburg's body fails despite resuscitation as day twelve begins. Benjamin dictates a stately funeral — procession, send-off, guards as pallbearers — believing his order to Balsamilco was simply carried out. 'Balsamilco' thanks his brother, privately.

Forty minutes into martial law, Benjamin walks into the Justice Bureau and informs Mizaistom, Botobai, and Kaiser that the government is now consolidated under military force, with the Bureau as his command center and the three of them as witnesses. His pretext: bio-terrorism 'orchestrated by Tserriednich and Halkenburg.'

The reader learns why the First Prince is moving so fast: he is infected, roughly 9.5 hours from coma and 12 from death. He means to purge the remaining princes and be anointed successor in time to pass the throne to his child under the State of Emergency Act. Botobai reads his pallor; Kaiser counts his hours.

At 8 a.m. on the twelfth day, Halkenburg — inside Balsamilco — phones Benjamin from Tier 2: the funeral departs at 1 p.m., the will exempts the princes from attending, and 'Balsamilco' will return once Halkenburg's guards are disbanded below Tier 2. Benjamin acknowledges his brother's puppet without knowing it.

Bound to a chair in his own late quarters, Halkenburg-in-Balsamilco fires Grimmel the Dissonance at the First Prince, powered by the same followers from the Ministry ambush. Benjamin, feeling the rumble, finally assembles the truth — Balsamilco is Halkenburg, and the soul outlived the body — and dispatches soldiers to Room 1009.

Mid-crisis, Benjamin retches and recognizes his own weapon's symptoms. The safe shows only Balsamilco's vial missing — so the dose came from somewhere else. Working the timeline, he lands on Furykov, who leaned close while delivering news, and on the only person who could bypass every safeguard: his mother.

Furykov confesses freely: he poisoned Benjamin under Queen Unma's 48-hour ultimatum — she is backing Halkenburg — and he is Beyond Netero's son, carrying the eye-mark curse under his tongue. His true fear was the curse erasing Benjamin's Guardian Spirit Beast's ability; if Benjamin dies to the poison instead, the curse reflects back onto Furykov, sparing the beast. Benjamin, following the logic, accepts him back.

Citing a Tserriednich–Halkenburg conspiracy, Benjamin schedules Special Martial Law for 2:15 p.m.: rival princes' guards executed on sight (Hunter Association members exempt), princes assembled in Room 1001, the 'Grand Hall,' by 2:30. His private goal: merge with his Guardian Spirit Beast's ability and transcend kingship — to watch over Kakin as a god.

Fifteen minutes before the deadline, Kanjidol knifes two of Luzurus's bodyguards in their bunks, savoring it — martial law means never having to think again. Behind him, one 'corpse' slowly raises an arm.

No answer at Halkenburg's door means treason against the Royal Army. Yushohi — an En user whose Stand By Me leaves him nearly defenseless while extended — audits his own odds of dying; Chiyamasi activates Muteking the Invincible Hero, accumulating time-limited invincibility with a hand on his partner's shoulder. Inside sits one person: the bound Balsamilco.