Arin stood in front of the large windows of his private room in Heavens Arena.
He tapped the message icon on his phone and sent a short notice to the arena management.
He needed a break just a week.
Nothing permanent.
Just enough time to realign himself, test his life-forms,
Within minutes, the reply came.
Approved.
"I am not surprised..." he thought.
His win streak had brought attention.
He was profitable.
The moment his name was on the ticket list, seats were sold.
Highlights of his fights made their rounds online.
Heaven's Arena didn't want to lose him.
So, naturally, they agreed without complaint.
He packed light.
A black backpack filled with the bare essentials: his documents, a phone, and a burner wallet with a few thousand yen.
He didn't plan to use them, but he'd learned fast that Nen users lived in a world where planning too little often meant dying too early.
-
Fifteen hours later, Arin stepped off the plane at Dolle Harbor.
He slipped on a pair of tinted sunglasses.
He didn't want to be recognized.
Word could travel fast.
The last thing he wanted was some reckless bounty hunter looking to test their Nen against the
"Heavens Arena Prodigy."
He bought a bus ticket and then boarded the next vehicle heading north.
The trip to Zaban City was uneventful, and Arin used the hours to rest.
With his head leaned against the window.
By the time he arrived in Zaban, the sun had just started to fall.
Despite its significance in history as the starting place of the Hunter Exam, it didn't stand out as anything extraordinary to the average civilian.
He stepped off the bus and inhaled deeply.
His stomach growled. And so, as if led by instinct, he walked the cobblestone streets to a restaurant, an old, open-sided structure where time seemed frozen.
He recognized it immediately from the background of early Hunter Exam footage. Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio had walked this street.
Maybe not this exact building, but close enough.
He sat at a wooden table outside, the sounds of crickets buzzing in the air.
A waitress approached and handed him a menu.
"Steak. Rare," he said. "
She nodded and disappeared.
The wait was short.
"Perfect," he whispered.
He ate slowly, savoring every chew.
Once finished, he left a generous tip, stood, and pulled out his phone.
He opened the map he had saved beforehand and typed in his next destination:
Numerous Wetlands.
A perfect location.
"For my training, I need a place that counts as wilderness."
"It is both experience and also a means to hide my abilities from the public."
"I do not want to test out White-1 and others in a public area; it is foolish to do something like that."
he thought.
The map told him it would be about an hour-long hike from the edge of the city, cutting through a forest trail that was known to be unmaintained.
He walked.
He stayed alert.
Zetsu was unnecessary; he wanted his aura to be present.
Wild creatures were less likely to attack something with a strong Nen presence.
Another twenty minutes passed before he arrived at the edge of the Wetlands.
Arin stepped forward, the soft squelch of mud beneath his boots welcome.
He was far enough now.
Just wilderness and aura.
He dropped his backpack.
He sat on a small patch of dry grass, legs crossed, eyes half-lidded. His fingers tapped against his knee in a slow rhythm.
"Time to test the limits," he said.
"Let's see if I can still control and feel the presence of White-1 from this far away."
He lifted one hand and gave a mental command.
Within his room, miles away, one of his White Life-Forms stirred.
It obeyed.
He could sense it, feel it moving, receiving his command even from here.
Arin smiled.
He closed his eyes, focusing.
A sudden flush of information hit him, not from sound or sight, but from feeling.
He reached into the link between him and the life-form and focused harder.
Hear what it hears.
It was a struggle.
It was all jumbled, muddy. The further he tried to extend his senses through the life-form, the more his own body felt… disjointed.
Like he was half-there and half-here.
He pulled back immediately.
"From this test, I have learned that even if I can control White-Life Forms across distances of continents, it is still too much for me to do so."
"It can be done, but right now my mastery and my pure life force are not nearly enough to make it practical in a real-life situation."
"I just tried to sense it, and I already felt my aura was crumbling, and I was getting weaker each second."
Arin understood that there are still many things to learn.
It is not that he was disappointed, in the end. He cannot master nen in just one month, and he just created his ability.
With experience and time, he should be able to do many things.
"Now."
"Let's get on with the practical training," he said to himself and smiled as he nodded.