11Author's note
Hello Fanfiction, if you want to skip this note and get straight to the story it will not hinder you in anyway and is just fine by me. I just want to write about some information about me, the author, as it pertains to this story I wrote.
I am cross posting this fic on Spacebattles under the name "The Tower" and the title "It seems that I am, unfortunately, a manipulator just as I suspected (Hunter x Hunter) (SI)" that website will be getting any updates a few days earlier than here for a few reasons. First, it is easier to update there than here. Second, People give much better feedback for improving the story there. Third, it's much, much easier to edit the story there. Finally, the reason I started to write this fic in the first place is because on Spacebattles someone followed me even though I had not posted a single chapter for any fic in months and had, in my opinion, never before posted a single good fic anywhere ever. Hopefully, this story is not terrible. Actually, I feel that this fic is, in fact, rather good.
There are a few reasons I felt my previous fics were terrible, the main reason being that I always had major trouble actually writing a chapter that was longer than 1k words, in other words the chapters were way to short. You may have already noticed that this first chapter is over 10k words which is most definitely a personal best. Even the longest fiction I have ever written was only just over 20k words in its entirety with around 20 chapters, which is another reason why I felt my fics were bad. I have constantly tried to increase the amount of words I write in a chapter without it being destroyed by far to much useless detail, no one wants to read several paragraphs explaining what an room looks like. Also, I try to make sure to keep up the amount of words without nothing actually happening during those many words.
This is something I notice is common in fan fiction. Sometimes a fic is only 10k words and a lot of things actually happen in it and sometimes the fic is over 100k words and nothing actually happens during those many words. This is something I want to avoid as much as possible. In fact, I already feel that in this chapter I was already skirting close to the edge of that problem, but I really had to set everything up for later chapters, that I hope I actually write, so there was a lot of introspection. However, I tried to have stuff actually happening in this chapter even with all the introspection. I feel I have somewhat succeeded.
I already have the next 20k words planned out ahead of time in order to, hopefully, keep myself from somehow making this fic even shorter than my longest fic of 20k words, even though I am already halfway there. In addition, these planned words actually have stuff actually happening in them, more so than this chapter even. However, these words are just planned out and are in no way written out. I feel like I have to warn the reader that I, myself, have no idea when I will update this fic, but I really, really hope I do write more of this fic and update it.
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Chapter 1 - New beginnings
While sitting upright in a comfortable chair with my eyes closed, I try to clear my mind of all thoughts and focus all of my senses on my thumbs and index fingers. I slowly push them towards each other trying to sense some sort of resistance. However, I don't feel anything at all, just like I hadn't for the last ten minutes.
I try to focus on only my fingers, but it is hard to focus on only one thing for so long, and naturally my mind wanders. It especially wanders towards how I arrived here, where I currently am today.
I was a normal person in a normal world; I liked reading, mostly fantasy and science fiction, likely without realizing that this was a sign that I was trying to escape my mundane existence. Not that my life was bad or anything. It is just that my life was a normal life, boring. There was no magic, spaceships, or aliens; there were not even any super powers.
I was just going along like normal and then, I died.
And then I was alive again.
In this world.
I cannot really recall my first few years, not only that, I cannot even really recall the exact day I remembered my past life, but there must have been such a time that I did not remember it. At least I was not forced to remember my life as a baby.
At first, I thought that somehow I was living again in another normal boring life. I should have known that remembering my last life had to mean something, had to mean that I would not be in just another normal world.
I figured out that this is no normal world when I was six years old. I learned that hunters exist and it didn't take me long after that to figure out that the new world I was in was Hunter x Hunter despite all that I had seen up to that point didn't show any signs of weirdness at all. All of the weirdness of the world was hidden from me.
I was in a fictional world with actual super powers that may as well be magic. Not only that but it was a world where one could become a super power not by random birth but anyone could get them just by training hard.
That very day at six years old, I started training, really training, like I never had before. I was going to get super powers even if it required hard work every single day, I don't think anyone from a mundane world would make a different choice, even if they were lazy, even if they would have to put their very lives on the line. I had already lived a life without risk and I still died anyway. I was going to get super powers no matter what.
I did sit-ups, push-ups, and drank plenty of juice.
Even when I took a break from training I was still training, just with games. I challenge everyone my age to tag and other such games even though it was somewhat weird playing with other six year olds. I didn't read books for pleasure anymore. Why read about fantasy and science fiction, I was living it. I didn't watch TV or movies or even play any video games although in my last life I had pretty much stopped doing those anyway as I grew up, I always felt they were boring compared to books, it was harder for me to imagine myself in those other worlds with those mediums. Harder to escape my mundane existence.
I eventually moved on to weights, although since I was a child I could not buy metal weights to wear, not because no one would sell them to me but because I didn't have any money. I was somewhat worried about damaging my growth by training with weights, but in Hunter x Hunter I never saw anyone worried about that and therefore I figured that it is likely ok as long I took it slow due to the natural aura everyone on this world has, even if they don't know about it.
My weights were as cheap as could be, they were free. Every time my mom tried to throw out a large one gallon plastic container for bleach, vinegar, or water I would take it instead. One gallon of water is more than eight pounds; many containers tied on my body, to each other, or to a long stick, gave me plenty to work with although obviously smaller metal weights would have been better.
I have parents in this life, just like I did in my last one. However, to be honest, I don't really like my parents in this life. Not that they were abusive or controlling or anything, I just didn't like them. My dad is a fisherman and my mom is a housewife. I didn't see my new father much while growing up in this life and my mother spends almost her entire life watching television, and not even good television, just crappy television, although it could be that I hate those shows because I am a guy and can't stand those shows that fake drama and yelling like Dr. Phil.
At least my new parents gave me a cool new first name, Devero.
They also gave me a last name.
...
I decided not to use that last name and instead decided that Grayson is my last name after I left, and now I don't even think about what that other last name was.
At ten years old, I was already the strongest kid at Port Nain, the port where I lived, by a vast margin. I still had no money and had somewhat ran out of the ability to make myself any stronger with only one gallon plastic containers of water, I decided to run away to a place I could make myself stronger so that I could later pass the Hunter exam without dying and therefore get the ability to access my Nen and finally gain the super powers I had always longed for.
I felt like I was on a deadline for 12 years old because obviously I am a transverser and don't all transversers end up being the same age as the main character, which is obviously Gon. I didn't know for certain that this is the case, I mean I knew what year it currently was, but was that the same year as Gon? I could not remember what year that was in the Hunter X Hunter manga.
I was feeling the pressure. I may be stronger than the other ten year olds around, but I was nowhere near as strong as Gon was even before his Hunter Exam. It is not like I could run for 80 km straight without rest. Let alone then having to run through swindler's swamp without dying.
I had to go to a place that could make me stronger. Strong enough for the test in two years, but at the same time a place that would be somewhat safe, not a place where I would die. The hunter exam is known to kill many of the people who attempt it often before they even get to the actual exam, and I had to be ready.
That place was Heavens Arena.
Heavens Arena is frankly the perfect place to both become strong as well as being somewhat safe. While you do fight other people, the judges are usually genuinely trying to keep the contestants from dying, unless you get yourself in a death match. Even the Zoldyck used it to train Killua and possibly their other children.
However, I had to get there myself with no money. So, I stowed away. It was not that hard to do so as a dock kid, or at least in this world it wasn't. I lived ten years on the docks of Port Nain, getting on a ship that was headed up north to the correct continent unseen was the easy part. Not even making sure I stayed fed and watered while on board the ship was that hard. The hard part was actually getting from Maputo Harbor, the port closest to Heavens City, across the land to Heavens City.
There was a highway and towns on the way so it was not like I was going cross country, but there were some close calls. However, I was much stronger and smarter than an average ten year old, so I made it.
While the wildlife between the Maputo Harbor and Heavens City was somewhat dangerous, the most dangerous being some kind of wild dog, less dangerous being something that looked like it was the son of a goat and an antelope, it was not stupidly dangerous if you didn't bother the animals like it would be in a place like swindler's swamp or anything like that. However, it was neither the wildlife on the way that was difficult nor even the people, some of whom had actually decided that trying to take advantage of a child without any money is a thing that they should do. The hardest part of the journey was the lack of food, water, and the elements, mostly the heat, causing sun stroke. The region was a bit deserty and a bit plainsy, it reminded me of Australia or maybe Africa.
After arriving at Heavens Arena, my hardship was not over, at least at the beginning. I already knew somewhat how to fight, to punch and kick, elbow and knee at least theoretically. In my last life, I took karate as a kid and while that was not actually helpful at all, because I took karate as a kid later in my last life I at least looked up the theory behind real fighting.
I was fast, I was small, and I was deceptively strong.
The first fight I had was actually super easy, barely an inconvenience because my opponent severely underestimated me. I dodged him, got behind him and attacked the back of his knees. His own fall cause him more damage than anything I could have done to him standing even with my above average ten year old strength. When he was down, I wailed on his back and won the match, with a TKO from the down and the large number of hits inflicted.
That was not the hard beginning. What was hard is that I only had 152 jenny to my name which could only be used to buy an orange juice. I was already feeling the trip over to Heavens Arena with no money. In order to even make it there, I had to use let's just say extra ordinary measures.
I didn't steal any money because I already felt bad at the fact that I was stealing food or drinks. Not usually from stores, but from other people that were on the way. Sometimes they would put something down and not look at it, giving me plenty of time to swoop in and take it without them noticing. Sometimes, I even used my ten year old charm to beg for food either by looking sad or even by voicing my pleas.
I had no safe place to sleep in the city, and therefore I had to find an out of the way place outside. Funnily enough, that was the closest I came to death so far in this life.
A guy saw me out there and just decided to try to stab me to death while I was asleep, for absolutely no reason. He was not homeless; he didn't want my pitiful juice money; he just wanted to kill some homeless kid.
Luckily, I had a backpack that I brought from home and I also brought a blanket to keep myself warm. I was wearing the backpack backwards on my front, mostly to keep the backpack from being stolen while I slept, with the blanket on top of me covering it. That guy's knife cut right through my blanket and into my backpack and even ruptured my orange juice can.
I had just bought that!
That random knife hobo kid stabber was the very first person I killed in this life. I killed him with his own knife. I expected to feel something about that. You always hear about people freaking out about their first kill. Like throwing up or something. But I didn't. All I felt was relief. Relief that I was the one who got to live.
For a while, I thought that made me a bad person, but by now I know that not freaking does not make me a bad person at all. Everyone likely handles it differently.
I didn't have much in my stomach anyway.
On the bright side, I then had some money for a cheap run down motel. I am honestly not sure I was actually any safer there, but nothing happened that night and I needed a place to clean up in order to hide the blood stains, the next day I was able to win on the 10th floor moved up to the 20th and I could afford a better safer hotel.
Now I didn't win every fight, not by a long shot. I won, I lost, I got stronger, I fought smarter, I got my ass beat, I lived, lived like I'd never had before. I was living in the world, in the moment, no longer spending all my life living in an imaginary world when I was not working, and sometimes even secretly when I was supposed to be working. I was enjoying my life, even while I lost and got beaten up.
By 12 years old, I had finally managed to win on the 190th floor and get all the way up to the 200th floor. I sometime wonder how I made it all the way up that fast. I still didn't really feel like I was as strong as Gon was at the beginning of Hunter x Hunter. Maybe it was because my whole life while at the arena was dedicated to fighting my way up. Or maybe I was fighting more skillfully and had less pure strength.
When I needed rest, usually from injury gained during a fight, I watched other people's matches, discovering their tricks to winning and what not to do. I requested matches whenever I could and when I knew I was too weak to continue the climb, I went back to training this time with the money I needed to train more effectively.
I was honestly a little lost after I got to the 200th floor. I mean, there was absolutely no way I would have a match there without Nen, probably not even after I got Nen. But, this had been my entire life for the last two years. I still didn't feel strong enough, but I didn't really know what to do next. I still had several months before the next Hunter Exam. I decided go find out where it was this year and then figure out what to do while I waited for the exam.
When I went to learn where the exam was this year, I realized how stupid I was, I almost felt like bashing my head against something, I settled a few hits with my palm. I was stupid because I totally missed the obvious.
The reason I wanted to take the exam in the first place was because I wanted to learn Nen, in order to get super powers. I didn't want to take the exam due to story reasons, 'Oh, I have to take the exam with Gon.' Who would even think that in real life. I didn't even know if this year was the beginning of the story. The reason I needed to take the exam was that without a lot of money the exam was the only way to get someone to teach you Nen without getting yourself killed or maimed. However, as I was looking up the hunter exam location I realized that I was now someone with a lot of money.
I was so used to being penniless both in this life as well as the last that I never even thought of just buying Nen lessons. I now had over a billion jenny, not bad for a kid that was sleeping outside just two years ago. In US dollars, that is about ten million, which just doesn't sound as impressive as being a billionaire, but is still loaded in my opinion.
Why should I risk my new life in the hunter exam? Despite getting to the 200th floor, it was still a risk to take the exam. I was still not strong enough to guaranty passing or even guaranty failing but still living. There may be a psychotic Nen user there, especially if this exam was the story exam. The hunter exam may even be different from the story, I still don't even know if I am earlier or later or exactly Gon's age. It would be extremely stupid to take the risk when it is just not necessary. If I still wanted be a licensed hunter, I could just take it later after I already knew Nen.
You don't have to be a hunter to hire a hunter. And while expensive, hiring a hunter to teach you Nen is completely legal, even though Nen is supposed to be a secret. If you know enough about Nen to hire a teacher you are already in on the secret.
I was able to buy a single one hour Nen lesson with a one star hunter without even needing to go anywhere for the low, low price of ten million jenny, the equivalent of around $100,000 USD.
He introduced himself, but I have never been the best at names and so in less than a second I promptly forgot it. He looks like he was in his early to mid 20s, had short black obviously unstyled hair, poofy shoulder pads, and a devil may care attitude. To go from a normal hunter to a one star in his early to mid 20s, assuming that is his real age, is quite impressive, I wonder what he did to do it, not that I would actually ask.
He spent 40 minutes going over the steps of exactly how to learn how to open and close my own aura nodes and to eventually control my Nen. He just covered the basics of the basics; luckily, I didn't really need anymore because I can kind of remember the rest from the manga, especially the Greed Island arc. He didn't even bring up the Baptism, or as I like to call it the stupidly dangerous and reckless way of activating Nen, which I will not be doing.
And now I am finally back to the present trying to feel the natural aura between my thumbs and index fingers while he sits across the table in my luxurious hotel room looking bored.
"The time is almost up. Do you have any last minute questions?" He says looking down at his watch.
He didn't need to look at his watch at all. He knows what time it is. I just paid ten million jenny for a single hour of his time and he still wants to cut it short by ten minutes. Now, that may not even be close to enough money to buy a house in the city, but it is still a lot of money.
Of course, I would never complain about it. He could kill me with a single pinky, in fact, he may not even need a single pinky to kill me. I am not even sure if killing me for annoying him would be illegal. Hunters can kill people legally if they have some kind of reason and the person is not politician, which I am not. "He annoyed me," could be a acceptable reason for all I know.
I have a few questions anyway.
"Yes, I have a few questions. I don't quite understand exactly about Nen vows and conditions. Can you explain that for me?"
He blinks at me surprised. "What's up with that question? It's like I just read you the preface and now you're asking me about the conclusion."
Ok, that is a weird analogy. I didn't look up what kind of hunter he is; maybe he is like a book hunter or something. Maybe a Harper Lee hunter.
"I already knew some information about Nen, I just never learned the steps on how to actually activate it. I decided to get strong enough first, so I don't rush it and activate it early." I lied to him.
I didn't even think about getting this information earlier because there was no way to get it until I had enough money to buy it anyway. I originally thought I would have to become a hunter first to get it for free.
He blinks at me again with half-mast eyes.
"You know, you don't actually need to be strong to activate your Nen normally. You only have to be strong, if you want to risk activating it by force. Strong enough to survive the activation, anyway." He says.
Now this information surprised me, but I didn't beat myself up for not knowing. As before, knowing this information earlier wouldn't have let me get super powers any earlier, I didn't have the money. This new information makes sense to me because it completely aligns with my knowledge of Hunter x Hunter. There were a number of Nen users in the show that were not nearly as powerful as Gon was even before he became a hunter.
"Oh? Well… Anyway about the vows and conditions and how they make your abilities stronger. I was wondering about that." I continue.
"What about it?" He replies.
He really is not very helpful.
"I know vows and conditions make an ability stronger, but why is it that a vow makes an ability stronger than a condition? On one case, you have to use your ability in some way or you receive a punishment and the other you cannot use your ability in any way but that way. It seems to me that conditions should make abilities stronger than vows do, not the other way around. " I explain.
"No, no you have it wrong. A vow will always make an ability stronger than a condition. I will explain with an example. Let's say you have an ability to shoot an energy bullet out of your finger, and your vow is 'may only be used on men' and by that you mean human males over 18 years old vs the same ability with the vow instead being a condition. You see a man and decide to use the ability on him. However, at the last moment his wife pushes him out of the way and takes the bullet. If you used a vow, the woman would be shot and may even die and the least that would happen to you is completely losing that ability for life, you might even lose your ability to use Nen for life, leaving even weaker than a normal person is. If it was a condition, the woman would be uninjured and you could even use the ability again right away and try for another shot at the man without worrying about hurting the woman. Which is more punishing to have against you? The vow obviously. Self-imposed stipulations that are harmful or potentially so to the creator obviously bring a larger power boost to the skill. Now that is not to say that a condition is not harmful. Not being able to use a ability at any time is also potentially harmful. If it was not potentially harmful at all then it would not boost the power of the skill at all. " He explained.
His explanation was long, but I listened careful to his every word. For the first time, I was truly impressed with my Nen tutor. He really knows his stuff.
"I guess that makes sense." I reply. "But could you come up with like 100 abilities each with a different extremely singular vow so that no matter what you would always have one ready to go?"
"No, that is not how it works at all, first of all, I already said that a vow or condition boosts a skill based on how potentially harmful that vow or condition could be to the creator. If your vows and conditions are not potentially harmful those vows and conditions would be useless for empowering your ability. On top of that, you just can't have 100 abilities. Abilities become stronger with practice, there is no way you could put in the same practice for each of the 100 abilities as you could with just a few abilities. "
"Ah, I see. Can you make a vow or condition that effects all of your abilities and not just each one. Lets say, for example, 'must always be wearing red' can you make a vow to cover all of your abilities and not just one?"
"Yes, you can do that and it would make all of your abilities more powerful, since that kind of all-encompassing vow or condition is still harmful. However, the power up would be either weaker or stronger depending on if it was a condition or a vow than if you used that same vow or condition on only one ability. If it was a vow it would be weaker because you would be spreading the same amount potential danger to all of your abilities. With a vow, you would lose all your Nen just for taking off your cloths, there would be the same danger regardless of if the vow was attached to one ability or many. If it was a condition, it would likely be stronger because in one case without your red clothes you would only lose the use of one ability, but the other you would lose the use of all your abilities. The potential loss of all out your abilities is obviously more risky than the potential loss of only one ability. Just in case you ask, if you had that vow or condition and then afterwards got a red tattoo your abilities would actually weaken just from getting that tattoo. It would still give some extra power due to the chance of the tattoo being removed somehow but not as much, since the chance of not wearing red is lower and therefore the danger is lower. Anything else?"
"One more question, well I guess it is two questions. What do you think my Nen type will be and how do I use it in a fight?"
Most people would try to hide what their Nen type is to keep it from being known and used against them. However, I think it is likely that this hunter, my sensei, I guess, already knows what my type is. Anyway, I am not actually telling him my type, but asking what type he already thinks I am. This question does not give him any more knowledge about me.
"You are a manipulator, no doubt about it. I don't even need to see your water divination."
I wince, shit, that is my least favorite type. I like every single other type more.
"Are you sure? A manipulator? I was kind of hoping for specialization or at least enhancement."
Shouldn't a transmigrator Gary Su be a specialist or something with like 3 kekkei genkai all at once even when they are not in the Naruto universe? Although, guessing from the struggle of my current life thus far, I am definitely not a Gary Su. Although, a case could be made that just being able to live in a magical world with super powers is already Gary Suish.
I was surprise when he just takes one look at me and bursts in to laughter.
"Hah Hah Hah, specialist! Heh Heh, enhancer!"
Great, he is even slapping his thigh now.
"Hey, you don't think I could be one?" I ask annoyed and somewhat hurt.
"There is absolutely no way you could be an enhancer. Ever. You definitely don't have the charisma of a specialist; do you even have a single friend?"
I just frown at him, I could make a friend… if I wanted to, but he is actually right. In this life, I have not a single friend.
I don't have anything against people or anything, but unlike most people I don't seem to have an absolute need to be around other people either. I am happy to have a friend and I am happy to be alone too. It doesn't sound weird to me, but everyone I ever told this to thought it was, like other people are as necessary as food, water, and air.
"You might, just might be a conjurer. But you just don't care enough about other people and their opinions to be one. You pursue your goals without care of other people's opinions."
God, he has only met me an hour ago, I guess he's not a one star hunter for nothing.
Wait…
He is actually making manipulators sound kind of cool. Pursuing your goals to the end without caring about other people's opinions sounds awesome. Almost like Emiya Shirou from Fate. He dreamed of being a hero even when everyone else thought he was stupid, although he would probably be an enhancer not a manipulator what with his simple mindedness and lack of planning. Although, I still would rather be a conjurer. I always liked Kurapika as a character and his abilities were useful and powerful.
"No, no, you're a manipulator; later in life you may eventually become a specialist, but not now. Not likely any time soon either."
"Ok, I guess I am a manipulator. How do manipulators fight? I know they like control things and people or something."
"Ah, that is actually a good question. Manipulators are well known for, except for a few rare cases, being absolutely terrible at fighting other Nen users."
…
And then he stop talking, like that was it, like just because I don't care about other people's opinions, I am destined to just suck ass at fighting.
"And?" I question.
"Actually, I don't know a lot about manipulation. I am a transmuter. But, most manipulators are good at investigation. I guess the main problem manipulators have is that they can only manipulate things with their aura but detaching your aura is a emitter or conjurer type Nen and therefore you are already having to use a different Nen type and if you decide to get close so you don't have to detach your aura then you have to deal with enhancement which is even worse for manipulators. If you don't want to have to touch the person you want to control, you will need an artifact, which are very hard to obtain, most manipulators never even get those and in battles Nen users can very easily destroy them because they are only as strong as a mundane item."
"Wait, wait, what do you mean an artifact?"
"If a person has a very deep emotional connection to an item over time a person's Nen seeps into the item, this is especially true for a Nen user. Once your Nen is within an item, then that item can be far away from you but your Nen will still be within the item and therefore you can use your Nen ability on whatever touches the item. However, even if you do have an artifact, it will not help you that much because a manipulation is an attack and therefore if you want to use manipulation on a person your Nen must be stronger than the other person's Nen and controlling another person is a continuous attack so even if you get them with their guard down if their Nen ever goes higher than yours then you will lose control. Because of these reasons manipulators can be very powerful against mundane animals and people, since they have low amounts of aura. This makes manipulators good information gatherers. It helps that manipulators are very logical as well."
I don't say anything to that and just frown. I didn't come to a world of super powers just to play detective.
Not caring about other people's opinions apparently got me into this mess and I guess me not caring about my tutor's opinion will just have to get me out of it.
I have seen plenty of examples of powerful manipulation in other works of fiction. The strongest one I can think of is Aizen from Bleach, just one look at his sword would put you into a complete hypnosis that you can never escape from. Although, I don't think that ability could be made here, likely to do so you would have to touch the other person at the very least, likely also have a bunch of conditions and vows on top of that.
There was also Taylor Hebert from Worm who has full control of insects, which she used to debilitating effect. Again, I would likely have to touch the insects first to gain control of them at the very least, which takes away a lot of the power.
There was also Heartbreaker, also from Worm, but I would rather not have a power like that anyway. There are many more fictional characters with the powers of manipulation that became very powerful people, and I shall do the same.
He takes another look at me and says, "Ah, there is the pursuing your goals without caring about other people's opinions again. You are most definitely a manipulator alright. However, I hope you do make it, if you ever become a one star hunter that will push me right into two stars. I hope I didn't teach you just for a little money." He gives me a small smile, the first I have seen on him.
At that he leaves me alone in my hotel room.
Ten million jenny is just a little money, maybe to only him. If it was only pocket chance he didn't have to take it, he could have left me with the money.
Although, I did hear that hunters are in general rich. Of the 100 richest people in the world 60 of them are hunters and there are not actually a lot of hunters around in the first place, I am not sure but I think there maybe not even a thousand hunters in total, although I may be wrong. Of course, there are also non hunter Nen users.
I close my eyes again and start pinching my fingers trying to feel the resistance. If I have a handicap against other Nen users I will just have to work harder than they are. I thought I was already at the finish line of my hard work to gain super powers only to find another race right after it.
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One of the first things I asked my Nen tutor was exactly how long it would take to control my Nen. His answer was that there was no exact time involved but it should take at least a year. In my mind, not risking my death in return for a year of hard work is well worth it. I had already been working hard for years before this. He also gave me a timeline for how long each of the steps involved might take.
Due to needing to schedule for a year of training for even just activating my Nen, I bought a house. I purposely bought one on the edge of Heavens City, especially far from Heavens Arena, because the further you are from Heavens Arena both the cheaper and quieter the housing is. I made sure to buy a house with land and privacy. My nearest neighbor was over a mile away. I was out in the boonies, but it was cheap and private.
I was surprised to find out that in this world or at least this city a twelve year old without an ID could even buy a house. I threw away my old ID because it had my old last name on it and I was obviously not where I was supposed to be. It really shouldn't have surprised me though, in this world a 12 year old is allowed to have death matches or even take the Hunter Exam unprepared and die a very painful death.
Even when I was ten years old, I was allowed to stay at hotels, even the fancy ones, without any ID. The only real thing a lack of ID would stop me from doing is buying tickets for travel, air, land, or sea, basically trying to stop me from being anywhere but the safer cities and towns. Even then, now that I have money, I could just buy an ID that would let me buy flights to those death trap areas, although not everywhere in this world can be gone to with just money.
Every day I would work on the steps as well as my normal work out. I was no longer fighting and so I had extra time to work on my Nen. I had gone from my hectic life of battles to the completely calm life of a hermit. At first it was hard to get used to, but I quickly grew to love the calm life just as I had loved my hectic battle crazy life. This is just a new way of living in the moment.
While I followed the steps, I discovered that for me the timeline given to me for those steps was completely wrong. It took me over a week to even feel any resistance between my fingers. I originally was very discouraged because I thought it was a sign that I was going to be slow for every step. However, that didn't happen, some steps that were only supposed to take me a day took me a week and other steps that were supposed to take ten or so days, I managed in an hour. Either the timeline was completely wrong or I was very different than most Nen users. I feel that I t is likely the second one; my previous life probably caused this to happen. If it was not my previous life, then it was likely because of my supposed manipulative Nen nature.
I worked hard every single day, often even combining my physical exercises with my Nen exercises doing both together at once. This was not difficult; it was barely an inconvenience, because who would not work hard for super powers, even a lazy person would. On top of that, I have been working hard every single day since I was six in this life. It has become a bit of a habit at this point.
In eight months, I could turn my aura nodes on and off, without even stopping to do water divination, I went directly to learning how to manipulate my aura, keeping it contained normally as well as keeping it inside my body, bringing it to my eyes, bringing it to my ears, even bringing it to my tongue, putting all my aura in only one hand or leg, and of course turning it on full while keeping it contained. One of the first things I wanted to learn to do was making it invisible to Nen users unless they use Gyo, which is the eye one. But, I could not figure out how to do that on my own. I will likely need someone to teach me it. Learning to control my aura seemed to not take nearly as long as it was supposed to, in fact, I would say it was probably the easiest thing I had done so far.
After all of that, I finally did my own water divination.
I had been putting it off mostly because I was pretty sure I knew what it would be and I was not happy with it.
The leaf moved.
It seems that I am, unfortunately, a manipulator just as I suspected.
Now, I just need to figure out what ability I should make for myself and then how to actually go about making that ability strong.
From my tutor, I learned that a good Nen ability reflects a person's own character, regardless of its complexity. Trying to copy someone else's ability will just hinder you. Therefore, while I could try probably hundreds of different powers, unless it truly reflects my own character they will never become powerful for me.
But what exactly is my character anyway.
I scratch my head trying to think about it. I spent a long time trying to figure it out, but it always seemed to remain intangible, out of reach. Therefore, instead of thinking about who I am, I decided to go from reverse and decide who I am not.
I am not the type of person that wants to control other people either like a robot or by messing with their emotions. To me it is wrong to even try to control other people; all you can control is yourself; you cannot control other people. That is one of the main reasons I was so unhappy to learn that I was a manipulator in the first place.
That lit up a light in my head. Eureka.
Yes, I am the type of person who controls myself not others. I don't control people, I don't control animals, I control myself. Although, I guess technically, I control other people through how they react to myself, however, this doesn't really count because they are the ones controlling how they react.
Yes, this makes perfect sense to me; in fact, it makes so much sense that it makes it seem like all other manipulators are using their powers incorrectly.
Manipulators control with their aura, what has the most aura, the Nen user's own body does of course. I don't need an artifact with my aura because my body already is full of my aura and is in fact the thing generating the aura and if my body is destroyed then I have already lost anyway.
Using emission to detach your aura or conjuring an object with your Nen or even fighting as an enhancer against people who are by nature better at enhancement than you are makes no sense for a manipulators to do. Manipulators control; they don't do those other things as well. Manipulators manipulate at 100%, emit at 80%, enhance and conjure at 60%, and transmute at 40%.
I immediately decide to try it. I look down and decide to move my finger with my Nen. It glows with my Nen and twitches. Did I just move my finger telekinetically with Nen or did I just use my muscles to move it? Or maybe I used my Nen to move my muscle to move my finger? I cannot tell at the moment, I am going to need more practice to find out.
I decide to try moving my hair instead, which has no muscles and is lighter, I look at myself in a mirror while trying to move my hair. It moves. Is that me or the air conditioning?
I go look; the air conditioning is off; it must have been me.
I am moving my hair!
I have super powers!
I am now super self hair styling man!
…
Time to go buy biology books.
…
Or do I even need to know my biology to manipulate it?
Nen seems to work on pure will and pure bullshit. You don't need to know how the brain works to manipulate a person into a living robot.
I stare back at my brown hair willing it as hard as I could to become blonde. It should be possible, since I could manipulate my hair pigment. Of course, if I was a transmuter, I could also make my hair blonde by giving my hair the properties of blonde hair.
I want my hair blonde. No, I need it blonde. No, it WILL be blonde. There is no want or need, it just will become blonde.
Ah! I put my face up against the mirror to look closely; a few hairs actually did become blonde.
I only sort of know how that is done biologically via manipulating hair pigments, but I don't know any of the detail. I was not focusing on how it could be done only on my willing it to be done. Likely thinking about the how would actually subtract from purely focusing on the will, although knowing without doubt that it could be done is likely important as well. Killua had that whole using lightning for nerves to improve response speed thing and he at least need to know enough to know what he should be willing for.
Looks like I now have a new exercise to work on.
I will my hair back to brown, but the blonde hairs don't change back, staying blonde as if to taunt me.
No! You will change back, you have no choice, I look closely at the mirror focusing on the hairs.
Brown, you are brown hair!
Brown!
It then finally changed back.
…
I thought the changes were not permanent? Illumi Zoldyck can only change his face without his needles for 5 hours.
I think back to what I wanted to change in the first place. I was willing my brown hair to become blonde.
Ah, of course, I willed it to become blonde, I didn't want it to only look blonde, but to actually be blonde.
It makes sense that it would be just as difficult to change it back as to change it in the first place. Also, it is likely that permanent changes take more power and are more difficult to achieve than temporary changes because instead of changing just the surface, I changed it all the way through.
I will have to be careful in the future, what if I change my face, but then I forget exactly what I actually look like and can't change it back?
I start to think about everything about my body I could manipulate.
Could I manipulate my own emotions? Yes, I could.
Could I manipulate my body telekinetically in order to fly? Probably, I need to check that later, when I am stronger.
I already know that manipulators can shape shift.
Can I use my abilities to exercise my muscles? Or even make my bones and organs stronger like in those Chinese novels? No, that last one doesn't actually make sense since that would be more of an enhancement ability, strengthening is enhancement not manipulation.
Although, maybe you could manipulate muscles to become stronger but only to the same level of strength as real exercise would. This would be useless, because even people without knowledge of Nen still use Nen unconsciously in this world. No one could open a 2 ton door without using any Nen. The maximum strength that larger muscles would give you is very little by comparison to your aura. Although, it would make you more muscular, most of a Nen users strength comes from their Nen, their enhancement Nen that is. Looking like a large muscle man without much of a strength upgrade is not very useful, unless you just want to look like a large muscle man.
Even if you manipulate your bones to become the strongest they naturally could be that will not actually help you much if you get hit by an Nen user. A Nen user can blow up a concrete wall with a touch, stronger bones wont help you much. Even if you somehow manipulated metal onto your bones, it would still not help a lot. Maybe if you could make your bones diamond or something, that is something to think about.
What really interests me is if I can heal myself. However, thinking about it that is also enhancement not manipulation. Turning a dead cell into a living cell is not enhancement, but I am not even sure what that is. However, increasing cell division would be an enhancement ability since you're strengthening the cell division not manipulating the cells. You could manipulate the cell into dividing, but it the case of a wound the cells would likely already be doing that on its own, without any need for manipulation. Maybe it would make the body's natural healing speed slightly increase. Or maybe you could move undamaged cells over from a healthy area so a larger area is then undergoing cell division.
However, you could use manipulation to remove viruses and bacteria from a person's body, you could also likely even manipulate and change a person's DNA. Another use in healing would be that you could manipulate your blood to keep it from leaving your wounds; you could make it such that you would never bleed. If the wound was caused by something very sharp you could likely even put yourself back together as long as the cells were not damaged. I guess you could also manipulate your own blood to attack people, but I don't think I would ever do that, I would rather keep my blood inside my body.
If I ever wanted to manipulate a liquid I could go get some water, even carrying jugs around with me would not embarrassed me, I already did that for years even without getting super powers from it.
Could I telekinetically manipulate my body such that I could add force to my punches and kicks? Thinking about it, it would increase the force and speed to my punches and kicks, but it would not increase damage caused by punching or kicking by much. Almost all of the damage caused by punches and kicks are caused by a person's aura, whether they are a Nen user or not. Having no conscious control over your Nen does not mean you have no Nen and that you are not using it. How else could a 12 year old child with not much muscle be so strong?
However, the increased speed would be very useful for running or using a bladed weapon. Although using a real bladed weapon without enhancement against an enhancer is just looking to get a broken blade. It would not cut them at all. Even using real bullets would only just annoy them. Increased speed would be helpful for dodging and countering which is definitely a plus. If an enhancer can't hit me then they can't beat me.
I hold my chin still thinking.
None of those sounds powerful enough, these all sound like useful abilities to get away from fights or as a supplementary roll rather than being powerful in a fight. Even faster dodging would just save me from fights, it vastly lacks offensive means.
Could I manipulate inanimate objects for offence?
I don't feel like manipulating inanimate objects would be against my nature. So I could probably learn how to do it. The main problem is that manipulating inanimate objects does not make them stronger. If you took a bunch of swords and manipulate them into fighting, they would still just be normal swords. They would likely just break on an enhancers aura, unless I was also enhancing the swords, and then I would be trying to use my 60% enhancement verse their 100% enhancement. Even with the help of a sword it would still not be a powerful enough attack.
I think I am beginning to realize why everyone says that manipulators can't fight against Nen users. Manipulators can manipulate things but they cannot make those things supernatural, cannot make them stronger. Manipulating supernatural things require you be more powerful or having created them than those things in the first place. Fighting something stronger than you are is completely impossible for a manipulator according to this idea and fighting something weaker than you makes you basically instantly win without even a fight. Manipulator are all or nothing. Winning or losing. Instantly.
What else can I manipulate? I have to touch something to manipulate it unless I learn emission or conjuration which I will always be weaker at, and I am still just in the basics right now anyway.
I look down at my arm and release my Nen. My body is in my Nen, what else is in it?
…
Wait!
My Nen is in my Nen!
Can I manipulate my Nen?
I almost bashed myself in the head.
No shit, of course I can.
In fact, I was already doing that literally earlier today and on top of that is the easiest thing to Manipulate. Manipulating my Nen around my body, to my eyes, ears, tongue, putting all my Nen in one of my arms or legs those are all manipulation of my Nen.
I instantly manipulate my Nen to form a letter A out of my finger. It is very easy to do. But, something is not right about that. I remember on the Greed Island arc they formed numbers out of their aura, but Biscuit said it was for learning transmutation. But now that I am here in this world that actually makes no sense.
How is manipulating your aura having anything to do with transmuting your aura? Transmutation changes the properties of your aura to something else it does not control your aura. Manipulation is the Nen type that controls things not transmutation. Changing your aura so that it is hot or cold, or even have explosive properties would all be transmutation, not controlling your aura.
This makes perfect sense, I was able to quickly learn Ko and control my aura in other ways very quickly. Controlling my aura must be manipulation. I can control my Ko rapidly but its overall strength will always be determined by my ability to enhance which will always be weaker than a enhancer.
Another revelation hit me; hiding your aura by making it invisible must be transmutation because you are giving your Nen the property of letting light through it, like air. While it is good I finally figured In out, it is annoying that In uses transmutation, since transmutation is manipulators' worst field, even if it is the easiest form of transmutation which is changing your own aura, and not changing the properties of other objects which is much harder.
Enhancing your aura, emitting your aura, manipulating your aura, transmuting your aura, and conjuring your aura are all the most basic Nen abilities and the easiest to learn. By conjuring your aura, I mean turning your aura into an object.
Enhancing an object, emitting an object, manipulating an object, and transmuting an object are all much more difficult. I never heard of conjuring an object, and I am not completely certain what that would be, possibly it would be turning an object into another object or maybe even turning a real object into your own aura or even turning another person's aura into your aura and like stealing their aura and Nen ability from them or something.
Most people might not know what emitting an object is but it is actually completely understandable, emitting your own body would let you separate your body into either a long range punch or separate your body parts like Buggy from one piece, without being able to move them which would be manipulation. Emitting an object just allows an object to detach from itself. However, I do wonder if you could use emission to cut someone else via detachment.
In order of hardness to control it goes your own aura being the easiest followed by an object or body without aura, for example a body in Zetsu, or your own body, since your aura does not naturally fight against yourself, the next hardest being a person or object with aura, since the aura fights the change and finally the hardest being another person's aura. Normal people have a very small amount of aura naturally and thus are harder to control than mundane items.
However, this order of hardness is just my own theory at the moment, since I have not actually tried controlling other people or their aura. However, I feel that this makes sense based on what I currently know.
These revelations helped me a lot; I think I finally discovered how a manipulator really fights.
The easiest thing to manipulate is your own aura and a manipulator can move their aura around their body faster than any other type. If I put all of my aura in my fist and hit an enhancer who has spread all of their aura around their whole body, my fist will do damage to them even if they are stronger than I am. They can't even take advantage of me doing that because I can move all of my aura to immediately defend against their own hits.
As long as I can see the hits coming in advance anyway. If I don't, I will go splat.
Later, I can learn to manipulate my own body telekinetically to become too fast to even be hit, although an enhancer could increase his speed as well by enhancing his own muscles. I think it is likely that many enhancers don't actually do that because doing so would actually make them weaker since aura is already much stronger than muscles, even enhanced muscles, so using up their aura to enhance their muscles would only just make them faster not stronger. They could tap a concrete wall and have it explode due to force with only slightly less damage than if they threw a punch as hard as they could at the wall.
Now that I finally have a direction to aim towards that fits both my character and my desire to become strong, I can now train in that direction.
I go outside and quickly think of an exercise that will help me quickly move my aura to punch, defend, as well as move quickly, all the things I will need in a real fight.
Putting your aura in the legs and then pushing off against the ground lets you move quickly in a jump, although it does not make your leg itself move any faster. It is slight ironic that moving your whole body quickly with aura is actually easier than punching and kicking faster.
I very quickly realize the very best exercise in order to work on this would be to fight someone. Fighting someone like Biscuit who can keep both herself and the other person unharmed would be the very best way to train this. However, getting training from someone like Biscuit is just not possible for me right now, so I will have to make due with shadow fighting, or in other words imagine another person that is impossibly strong is fighting against me and acting out my own moves in real life in response to the imaginary person.
As I am doing so, I can't help but think about what I will do now. I have already lived a life of training hard, a life of fighting hard, and now a life of reclusive training.
Basically the only people I have talked to in these last nine months are the people I meet when I go out to buy groceries, and even though, as I said before, I don't really need people around me like most other people. Being completely alone for nine months can really make you want to talk to someone.
I could go take the hunter exam just to see what it's like, but the hunter exam is in early January and it is now August, six months away.
Thinking about the date reminds me that my birthday also past and therefore I am 13. I officially became a teenager, although that was a while ago now. My birthday in this life is February 21st. I basically skipped it when the date past, I was training my Nen and no one else was around anyway.
Do I really want to shadow train for the next six months? I don't even need to actually train my muscles anymore since due to the revelations I realized that one it's pointless, since way more of my actual strength comes from my aura, more specifically enhancement type Nen and two if I wanted to I could manipulate my muscles to become larger anyway.
I am very unhappy to figure out that normal exercise is pointless to me, since I was still doing them earlier today.
…
Well, thinking about it maybe it was not pointless because in this world, you lift with both your aura via enhancement and your muscles. Therefore, weight exercises also exercise your enhancement Nen. Maybe I should keep up my exercises anyway.
Thinking of exercises, I could also start to work on the exercises for emission and enhancement, which was detaching a ball of aura from your aura and keeping it detached for a period of time and enhancing a rock such that you can crush 100 rocks with that one rock without damaging it.
I guess you could also enhance a shovel and dig through a mountain for enhancement, but I don't have any mountains handy anyway. As far as I know they never covered exercises for conjuration and the exercise in the story for transmutation appears to actually be the exercise for manipulation.
So I am not sure what to do to exercise those.
Maybe just trying to turn my aura into something else or giving my aura a different quality. I may as well make that quality invisibility so I can train In at the same time. I will also have to discover what is the easiest object to turn my aura into, gas, liquid, or solids. I am guessing that turning my aura into a gas would be easiest, probably hydrogen.
Wait… could you use transmutation to give your body the quality of invisibility to make yourself invisible? Sounds likely, too bad my worst Nen type is transmutation, that would be cool. Although, maybe I could learn to manipulate the light and sound around me making me invisible and soundless. Those things are even touching my aura before they touch me so it sounds possible.
Most Nen users don't even do specific exercises for improving their Nen types. Not because they are lazy or dont want to become stronger, but because it is like both the Nen types and abilities have their own experience bars. For example, if you train your manipulation via moving a rock around it will only somewhat help you with moving water. It will be like you have manipulation rank 5, move rock rank 5, and move water rank 1. If you want to move water it is far more effective to just train in moving water right from the start. Therefore, most Nen users just train their Nen types by using their abilities because it trains both the Nen types and the abilities that they want to use at once.
Personally, I am in favor of doing specific exercises for improving my Nen types. This is because let's say you have an ability that lets you control a Nen user. Can you really even train that? If you have a small amount of Nen because you just activated your Nen, then you might even have trouble controlling a normal person let alone a Nen user. It would be far to difficult to train that unless you were already strong in manipulation because you already had move rock rank 30 and manipulation rank 30. It lets you learn harder abilities more easily.
The way most Nen users get around this problem is by using vows and conditions. A vow or a condition lets you get a higher rank right from the start. For example, if normally you are manipulation rank 1 and control person rank 1, then a condition on the ability could make you manipulation rank 1 and control person rank 6 instead. This lets the ability to become strong enough to start using it right away therefore allowing the Nen user to train it to become even stronger right away.
I am completely against doing this because once you set a condition on the ability you cannot normally take the condition off or even change the condition. There are some abilities that let you do but they require a very powerful transmuter that can transmute your aura and frankly you would have to trust them with your very life.
While I am definitely in favor of exercising my Nen types, I am frankly getting really tried of all this training. Back at Heavens Arena, I at least got to watch other people fight for entertainment. I might just wear myself out with only training by myself.
Maybe I should go traveling for the next 6 months, see some cities, go on a bit of a vacation? I have money now and I have not really relaxed in the last 7 years since learning that this is Hunter x Hunter world.
It would feel a little weird though. I have spent all of my time obtaining super powers and now when I only have the beginning of super powers I am planning on taking a break? You would think I would at least get something more supernatural like an actual Nen ability not just aura control and very slight body control.
The only motivation I have had since I was six in this world has been to obtain super powers and now that I have powers has my motivation just drained away completely?
If I did become a real hunter what would I even hunt for? What do I really want? Am I really only hunting for super powers?
That is not a very good thing to hunt for. You find your super power by searching yourself, who you really are, not from something outside of yourself. Spending the rest of my life searching myself and not going anywhere sounds somewhat boring.
…
Or is it?
Does searching for who you really are mean that you can just find out by being a hermit?
Obviously this is untrue.
You have to go out into the world in order to truly find yourself.
You have to experience things.
Sitting at home by myself can help me learn some things about myself, but not everything, probably not even the majority of things about myself.
I immediately stop practicing and start packing up my backpack, my new one not the one that got stabbed. I have never been one to hesitate once I decide something. I may stop and do something else if I later discover I was wrong before, but that does not mean a person should hesitate for even a second once they decide something. However, this also does not mean that people should jump without making a plan, that would be even worse.
After I pack up my bag and pack up my house for vacancy. I go to sleep for one last night. Tomorrow, I go out to find myself and once I find myself, I will finally know what I want to hunt for next.