Hunter x Hunter No. 413: Loyalty

The countdown to Martial Law is in its final minutes. The King and his staff are observing Halkenburg’s body, and come to understand as we do, that he is not dead, but fighting in his Guard’s body, and is still eligible for the Contest. Benjamin has realised that Halkenburg has successfully body-swapped, and wants to get to the bottom of it, at the same time, his infection is becoming symptomatic, and he realises that he has been attacked by the bioweapon. As his mind races to find a culprit, he reaches his worst-case scenario, betrayed by his staff, in favour of his brother.

Confronting Furykov, he does not deny the allegations, however he must explain his motive. Furykov has infected Benjamin, in order to kill him, have the curse bounce back to Furykov, and activate Benjamin’s ability, making him stronger than ever. His suicide play comes from pure devotion to Benjamin, making him the most powerful King Kakin has ever seen, should the plan come through.

Furykov’s ability being called ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’ is a cute touch, a nod to a fellow legendary mangaka, and while a little esoteric, the ramifications for the plot are clear. Benjamin is a huge threat to everyone on board the ship. He and his guards are armed and dangerous, ready to take the life of Prince Tserreidnich. Martial Law descends in 15 minutes time.

Another exciting chapter, with some particularly great panelling and strong shot composition, and no huge pages of text this time either! Things are getting scary aboard the Black Whale 1. I can’t imagine the other princes won’t be prepared for a bold play from Benjamin, but if his ability is as powerful as he seems to believe it is, then everyone could be in a lot of trouble.

Togashi likes to play the long game with his plot threads, before they all finally intersect. A lot of the disparate groups during the Chimera Ant Saga took a long time to feed back into the core conflict, but many of those one-off characters became fan-favourites. It may seem impatient of me, but I really do want to see Kurapika in the centre of the conflict again, he is the protagonist and I do miss that aspect of the story. This saga almost falls into the palace intrigue type of storytelling, which can be hit or miss for many readers, Chimera Ant was like this at times as well, with the King and his Advisors being a key focus of that storyline.