Chapter 12: A Leap in Strength
The Pale Moon Tiger, of course, couldn't speak. It just let out a low rumble.
Kai, meanwhile, tried to pinpoint the location of the wolf he'd sent out on patrol. Since it was under a direct command, its Star Marker was in an "Active" state, and Kai could vaguely sense its direction.
With a thought, he switched to First-Person mode, his consciousness flooding into "Kai-Wolf."
A pair of green, glowing eyes blinked open in the dark forest. "Kai-Wolf" sniffed the air and silently melted back into the shadows, hunting for the "pale-white child" he thought he'd seen.
Back at the campfire, Butch's patterns had begun to glow with their jade-like light. In the flickering firelight, it was a hauntingly beautiful sight. Kai found himself staring... and then he realized something.
He reversed the Gyo on his eyes, effectively performing Zetsu on them, and stared intently at Butch's glowing fur.
The beautiful, jade-like patterns began to spin, pulling his mind into a long, kaleidoscopic hallway...
Just before his concentration broke and his mind was lost, Kai snapped his Zetsu off. The barrier of Aura returned to his eyes, and the spinning patterns became normal again.
Butch let out two low rumbles, as if asking, You okay?
Kai let out a sharp breath. "No wonder your fur is so flashy at night. It's a visual hallucination... So it's not a liability at all. It's how you lure in your prey."
Butch just gave him an innocent look.
"Kai-Wolf" circled the dark woods for an hour but found nothing. No pale-white child. Must have been my imagination.
Kai called the wolf back and let it gnaw on the leftover rabbit bones.
The next day, the routine was the same.
Kai sent the wolf out to patrol the (still empty) traps.
Butch went into the forest to hunt.
And Kai began his Nen training.
This "superpower" stuff was, in his experience, still incredibly new and fun. Even without the Star Marker on his neck forcing him to train, Kai was genuinely interested in exploring the limits of Nen.
Ten, Zetsu, Ren, Hatsu...
Gyo, Ryu, Shu, Ken...
He felt his mastery of his Manipulation ability was already quite high, but he still dedicated time to drilling it.
For his Emission training, he split his time between basic Aura-release exercises and practicing what he now considered his trump card: Divine Flick. He knew that if he could one day fire the bullets without the "charge-up" gesture, the ability's power would climb to a whole new level.
And then, the grind: activate Ken, hold it, count... push himself to utter exhaustion, wait for the Star Marker's healing to restore his stamina, and do it all over again.
There was no shortcut to increasing your total Aura. You just had to sweat, grit your teeth, and empty the tank, over and over.
I have the Star Marker as a recovery hack. That already puts me way ahead of most people. Not everyone has a Bisky to train them, so what do I have to complain about? I have to use every second...
He pushed himself so hard he was almost numb.
He suddenly understood why Biscuit had developed an ability like Magical Spa Services. As a woman, she must have poured an unbelievable amount of blood, sweat, and tears into forging that monstrously powerful body. When she was young, using her Hatsu to recover, her training must have been even more insane than this.
He fed himself a big dose of self-motivation, and his Ken time grew...
Day 3 in this world. Day 2 of serious training.
By nightfall, Kai was too exhausted to even lift a finger. He was passed out cold on Butch's back, a pile of clean-picked bones by the fire.
"Nine hundred ninety-seven... nine hundred ninety-eight... nine hundred ninety-nine..."
Day 4. Past noon. Kai's Ken looked just as strong as it had three days ago. But this time, he'd been holding it for over sixteen minutes.
"One... THOUSAND!"
He gritted his teeth, forced out the last number, and collapsed. His Aura vanished. He fell to his knees, his face drenched in sweat, but he was grinning.
"One thousand seconds!"
He rolled onto his back. "Back in the day, prodigies like Gon and Killua, with Bisky's 24/7 help, went from 3,000 to 20,000 Aura in 30 days. Today, I, Kai, working alone, went from 100 Aura to 1,000 in just 3 days! Ten times the Aura! My talent isn't half bad, either!"
Thinking back on the hellish, all-day training of the past 72 hours, he felt it was worth it.
It wasn't just a tenfold increase in Aura. He'd drilled every basic Nen technique until it was second nature. His comprehensive strength was easily ten times what it was.
If he could go back to that night on the ship... he wouldn't even need Butch or the wolf. With his new fundamentals, he'd never lose to that gunman. He could probably end the fight from 50 paces with a single Divine Flick.
"Can't get cocky," he reminded himself. "Bisky's 'bare minimum' to survive in the world is 1,800. I'm barely past half that..."
He felt the Star Marker's healing restore his strength. He did a kip-up, landing lightly on his feet.
He walked over to a massive tree, one that would take three men to wrap their arms around. He focused his Aura, enveloping his fist in a thick shroud of Ten, and punched.
CRACK!
The tree exploded inward, a massive hole punched clean through its center.
He then hooked his thumb, a ball of Aura forming. Bang! He fired his Divine Flick.
BOOM!
The "bullet" struck the already-damaged trunk. The entire top half of the massive tree was blasted into the air, spinning end over end before crashing down, a smoking, splintered crater where the Aura had hit.
"Not bad."
The wolf, watching this, was trembling in terror. Even without the Star Marker, it would have submitted. This... this is just a child!
Butch, on the other hand, was just as awed, but also deeply affectionate.
Kai patted the tiger's head, then rounded on the wolf. "You useless thing! I told you to catch one bird! It's been three days! Butch has hunted this area clean! If we get hungry, I'm skinning you next!"
The wolf whimpered, pressing itself flat to the ground. After a moment, it heard the boy's voice again. "What are you doing? Let's go."
The wolf looked up. Kai was already on Butch's back, ready to leave. The wolf scrambled to its feet and followed.
Kai hadn't given up on catching a bird. He needed an aerial scout. He'd realized his traps were just badly made.
Now, he had a better way.
He activated Gyo, his vision sharpening. He spotted a flock of crows chattering on a high branch. He signaled for Butch and the wolf to stay back.
He then activated Zetsu, sealing his Aura completely. He became just another shadow, another rock. He walked right under the tree, and the birds never noticed.
Gotta be gentle...
He flicked his finger. A tiny, rice-grain-sized Nen bullet shot out, thwacking one of the birds. It chirped, then fell, unconscious, from the branch.
The other birds squawked, but before they could fly, thwip, thwip, thwip, thwip...
Four more tiny bullets, and four more stunned birds rained down.
"Got 'em."
He took a single strand of his hair and wrapped it in Aura. He used his Hatsu to twist it into five microscopic pentagrams. He "stamped" one onto the hard beak of each unconscious bird, leaving five tiny, rose-gold Star Markers.
"Wake," Kai said.
All five markers activated, and all five birds snapped awake.
"Fly."
They chirped, confused, but the command was absolute. They took to the sky in an orderly formation.
Kai looked up. With a single thought, he switched from "Command" to "First-Person."
Instantly, his mind split into five. He had five extra sets of eyes, soaring on the wind, looking down on the endless forest.
Is this what it feels like to fly? his human body thought, awestruck.
He quickly focused, spreading the birds out, flying higher. He needed to map this place.
"It's an island?"
He jumped on Butch's back.
"No... a peninsula."
From 100 meters up, his new bird-scouts gave him the full picture. He was on a massive peninsula that jutted north into the ocean. The shipwreck was at the far northern tip.
To the east and west were coastlines, and on both, he saw strips of civilization.
He'd been traveling south, deeper into the forest, to bury the bodies. He was currently closer to the eastern city.
From the air, he saw something on the edge of the eastern city... was that... an amusement park? He directed all five birds to look. Yes, it was. But it was a classic "looks closer than it is" situation. It was still a long, long way off.
Still, he finally had a destination.
"Stop, Butch," Kai said, patting the tiger.
He hopped off and walked to his right. The trees were thinning. Up ahead... a chain-link fence.
Just then, one of his bird-scouts, high overhead, spotted something. On the other side of the fence. A few shady-looking figures.
Kai walked along the fence line until he saw a sign. He could read the Hunter alphabet now.
ENDANGERED ANIMAL PROTECTION AREA
PALE MOON TIGER HABITAT
NO ENTRY
Kai went silent.
For crying out loud... no wonder I haven't seen anyone. I've been wandering around outside a nature reserve this whole time.
He also realized he was lucky he hadn't been arrested as a poacher.
Butch let out a low rumble. He recognized the fence.
Kai looked at the tiger, and all the pieces clicked. "You were injured... by poachers," he said, realization dawning. "You fled the reserve, and just happened to be near me when... when I woke up. And my Aura blast healed you. Is that it?"
Butch just tilted his head and nuzzled him.
Kai's expression hardened. "I can't let this stand. A few lousy poachers think they can mess with my Tiger Bro? Not on my watch."
He'd been itching to test his new skills anyway.
He swung back onto Butch's back. "Let's go. This 'fake Hunter' is going to pay them a visit."
(End of Chapter)