Halkenburg's Conscience

The Ninth Prince, whose bow-armed Guardian Spirit Beast is revealed this chapter, tells his father he wants out of the succession battle. Nasubi's answer — 'do as you wish' — commits him to a contest that has no exit clause.

The Ninth Prince finds his entire loyal guard detail unconscious around him under circumstances no one can explain. His beast has begun conscripting his followers — without asking the pacifist it serves.

Three of Furykov's four 'ringers' turn out not to know they can use Nen: Loberry was initiated by Silent Majority's manipulation, Shedule and Yuhirai by Halkenburg's beast, which left feather marks and revised its victims' memories. The fourth ringer — a real expert hiding in plain sight — remains unfound.

The Ninth Prince leaves his quarters with five personal guards to demand the contest's cancellation in person — the pacifist's first physical move against the system.

Denied access to Nasubi's quarters, Halkenburg hands the gate guards a letter and vows to return with another every day. Princes may see the king only at Sunday banquets; he intends to make the rule embarrassing.

Four days of letters lowered the guards' vigilance; Halkenburg and five guards draw on them and he walks to his father demanding the contest's suspension. His bullet freezes mid-air before Nasubi's face — the king cannot die until the ritual ends. Turning the gun on himself, Halkenburg's own beast catches the round.

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 Sumidori's soul confirmed inside Shikaku's body, Halkenburg lays out four hypotheses for where Shikaku's mind went and begins methodical testing. His awakened resolve has turned the pacifist into the arc's most rigorous experimental scientist.

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.

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.

Feigning agreement with Kanjidol's suspicions, Basho privately concludes the opposite: Benjamin's own men staged the Room 1007 incident, and an ability that activates on Shikaku's suicide — post-mortem Nen — is in play. He adds it to the watch list beside the beasts.

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.

Kaiser traces a stray fainting to Worio Bay, a Bureau staffer bearing Halkenburg's pinion mark, pre-briefed to speak if Kaiser raised Nen on his own. The message waiting for him: the Ninth Prince intends to die — soon — and expected Kaiser to come asking.

Halkenburg-in-Balsamilco narrates his ability's rules, proven on Shikaku, Sumidori, and Vict: one mind awake at a time, his side holding priority; when the possessed side's original body dies, the victim's mind returns home and the intruder sleeps. His plan: kill his own body, ride Balsamilco for roughly ten hours, and win the contest as a dead man.

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.

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.

Priests carry Halkenburg's casket through a hidden door in Nasubi's quarters into the Princes' Burial Chamber, laying him between Salé-salé and Kacho. His fireplace stays dark where his siblings' 'Flames of Life' burn — and Nasubi states it plainly: as long as the soul lives in a body, the right of succession stands. Halkenburg is still fighting.

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.

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.