Chapter 1: The Birth of a Monster
"Hmm." I sit on a log in meditation. Thinking all the while.
'I wonder if my Ten increased again, I've been training all day after all.' He thinks internally before deciding to take a break and check.
"Status."
[Julian Krueger] [Enhancer]
[Nen: 1109/1115]
[Ten: 15/?]
[Ren: 4/?]
[Zetsu: 0/?]
[Gyo: 0/?]
[Ken: 0/?]
[Shu: 0/?]
[In: 0/?]
[Ryu: 0/?]
[En: 0/?]
[Unspent Points: 0]
'Yes! It increased from 14 by 1.' I'm still confused about how my hatsu counts as enhancer when it seems more like a specialist ability.
Though it's been years since I've watched Hunter x Hunter, so my knowledge is probably spotty at times, at least the Succession War Arc is still in my mind.
I would be upset I'd never get to see it end, but it probably wasn't going to anyways. At least now that I'm within the world of Hunter x Hunter I at least get to see an AU version of it.
It's been over a week since I've transmigrated here, over a week since I was jumped by a group of gang members calling themselves 'Truck-sama's Disciples' and transmigrated into the 10 year old son of Biscuit Krueger.
The same Biscuit Krueger that would go on to play a pivotal role in the series of Hunter x Hunter moving forward.
'Did Bisky ever have a son?' You would think I would remember something like that.
'I should get back to my meditation, I have to impress bisky after all.'
It was true too, when I first transmigrated I was disoriented, it wasn't like I just took over Julian's body.
It was more a fusion of personalities and memories, I know everything both of them knew.
I don't remember what exactly happened the day that I fused, but what I do know is that I fell into a deep sleep accompanied by a vicious fever that according to my grandmother, the woman who raises me most of the time, almost killed me.
It's a miracle that I somehow pulled through. Upon awakening I was greeted not by the relieved expression of my grandmother but by my furious mother demanding answers.
She dropped everything she was doing and returned home once she learned I fell ill and that I might not make it.
Only to be completely shocked once she found me in her words comfortably asleep and shrouded by a thin subconscious Ten preventing my apparently awakened Nen from leaking.
I was honest with her and told her I didn't know how it happened, though it wasn't a lie, it was definitely deceitful.
It might be true that I don't know for sure how it happened, but I suspected the obvious.
My Nen was somehow unlocked when Julian merged with the unknowing invader. My mother calmed down upon sensing my 'honesty'.
She seemed resigned with what happened next however, which was explaining what Nen was, its basics and its uses.
In her own words, she would rather not let me involve myself in the world of hunters and Nen, but now that I had it, better I learn from her than from someone who might want to take advantage of me.
She told me the basics before making me promise I would only practice the basics and wait for further training when I'm older.
I begged her to train me now, and to take me with her on her Hunter adventures but she refused.
I ended up convincing her to give me a shot after lots and lots of hours of coercion.
-Flashback Start-
"Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease-" My annoying yammering is interrupted by my mother.
"Enough already! Fine, I'll train you." She says.
She continues before I can even get excited, "On one condition."
I guess I should have expected that.
"What?" I ask tentatively.
"I'm leaving on a mission that's too dangerous to take you on currently, it should take around two or three months for me to finish, after I do I'll come back."
"If you're Aura, in other words your Ren isn't at least this strong-" She cuts herself off by flexing her Ren, and although I can't use Gyo to physically see it, I could definitely feel it.
"If it isn't at least that strong by the time I come back then forget about being trained by me, ever." She says resolutely.
It sounded incredibly tough, but I was going to agree until that last part, "What do you mean, ever?"
"Exactly what it sounds like." She replies.
"We can forgo the entire bet if you want, then you just have to do as I say and wait a few years."
Looking at my mother's resolute face I could tell she meant it. If I accept the bet and subsequently lose, she will never be my teacher.
It's weird seeing Bisky like this, everything I know from the anime and manga, to my own memories paint Bisky to be carefree and mischievous, not at all the serious image she's presenting now.
It shows how serious she takes my situation that my normally childlike and dotting mother is acting like this.
"Deal." I state firmly.
My mother takes a deep breath and looks disappointed. "So be it then."
"By the time he's ready for training Wing will have finished his learning from me, maybe he can teach him?" She mumbles under her breath but I manage to catch it.
"What's with the lack of trust?" I ask, "Also you already have a disciple?"
"Then why can't you just take another one? I don't see how it would affect your schedule if you train us together, you just being a stingy old hag." I tell her my brain shooting the filter between it and my mouth for some reason.
My mother develops an angry tick mark on her forehead before yelling out rhetorically, "WHO'S A HAG!?"
The last thing I saw was my mother's gloved fist hurling towards me when I blacked out.
-Flashback End-
Next thing I knew I woke up and my mother was gone. Leaving with the promise to come back in a few months time for my evaluation.
Shortly thereafter I unlocked my Hatsu, or I should say it was already unlocked. I just needed the keyword to activate it 'Status'. Which I ended up saying completely innocuously at one point.
Quite frankly I don't have any idea how I developed it, from the water divination test I took and even from my Hatsu itself I'm confirmed to be an Enhancer.
Self-developing Hatsu are a specialist thing I'm pretty sure.
The Hatsu shares shocking similarities to an RPG stat screen page, a style of game which both me and little Julian were fond of.
I've decided to name the Hatsu 'Challenger' due to its nature.
The way it works is essentially I can challenge someone so long as the person I challenge is a fellow nen user.
We will fight, and provided I win, my Hatsu autonomously, without my input grades my fight as awards me points, points I can use to enhance my nen abilities.
It's a very strong, dare I say overpowered ability that basically makes my potential limitless.
These aren't the only conditions or requirements but if I'm being honest the conditions aren't that harsh, which is a good thing for me.
A good rule of thumb is that the less restrictive powers in Hunter x Hunter are usually the best, I mean look at Netero, Meruem, Tserriednich. Putting vows and what not usually restricts the power a lot, and sure that power might be extremely strong under certain conditions but it's held back by its lack of versatility in most other circumstances.
Kurapika is an exception not a rule.
I stop worrying about my Hatsu, since it's not like I'll be fighting any nen users any time soon.
I'll stop worrying about future events, since after researching the number of Hunter exams I've determined I'm about 10 years before canon, plenty of time to prepare.
I harden my resolve and I let go of every worry, every thought, I only focus on my breathing, and on my Ten.
I enter into a trance deeper than ever before, one I'd be stuck in for a shocking amount of time.
--0--
"Julian, Julian!"
I'm roused out of my meditative doze from being shaken repeatedly.
I open my eyes, the last thing I expected to see was Mr. Poorfarmer, yes that's his real last name, our next door neighbor.
"Mr. Poorfarmer? What are you doing here?" I ask befuddled.
He looks just as confused, "What am I doing here? Son, what are you doing here!"
"Don't y'know the whole town has been looking for you." He asks an obvious rhetorical question.
"Huh, why?" I ask, I look up and back at him, "It's not even sun down yet."
Mr. Poorfarmer looks like he can't believe what he's hearing, "Julian. You've been gone for a week!"
"What!?" I don't believe it at first, but I don't see why he would lie about something so easily verifiable, it wouldn't be a very funny prank either.
I stand suddenly only then notice how dry my lips feel and how simultaneously hungry, and especially thirsty I felt.
"Just head home Julian, your grandma is worried sick." He tells me.
"Uh yeah." I mutter lamely.
I stand up, noticing how sore my body feels.
I take off at max speed, which not even using nen, is already pretty fast. I'm an enhancer after all, I have pretty well developed muscles.
I jump from tree to tree until I make it out of the forest and into the small village I call home.
I race home, and as I get there slam the door open, I pant slightly out of breath.
I find my grandmother resting in our living room looking worried.
"Hey Grandma, sorry, I think I broke curfew." I say sheepishly. Tempted to do the classic scratch the back of the head anime expression.
My grandma goes from startled to relieved to furious, 'Man, lots of people are mad at me recently, maybe it 'is' a me thing.'
She stands from her seating position and 'old people waddles' to me.
"You think you're funny?"
"Where. Were. You." She seems to enunciate every word by smacking me with her cane.
"Ow, Grandma, Ow, Stop!" I'm mostly putting on a show here, my grandma isn't seriously trying to hurt me, but she couldn't even if she tried.
"I was meditating-, Ow! -When I fell asleep."
Feeling like that's not enough I end up tacking on, "My bad I won't do it again."
Either my Grandma calmed down or her arm got tired because she stopped smacking me, the latter more likely.
"You fell asleep for 6 days?" She asks skeptically.
"Yes."
There's an awkward silence for a few seconds before my grandmother just sighs, "Fine then, next time at least give me a warning, there's leftovers in the fridge, heat it up if you're hungry. I'm gonna check out early tonight." She says heading towards her bedroom.
She stops in front of her door before entering, without turning around she calls out to me, "Also Julian, I understand you made some type of deal with your mother, to go adventuring with her, she seems to be under the impression that you'll fail, but I know better, I know how simultaneously talented and stubborn you are."
"I have no clue what the conditions for her agreement are, but if, and more likely when you fulfill whatever terms you two have, give me some warning then as well. Okay?"
The atmosphere turned serious all of a sudden and made me freeze up.
I'm silent for a moment, "Yes, I promise." I end up declaring solemnly.
"That's all I ask." Having said her piece she finally enters her room, presumably to get some rest.
As hungry as I am, I'm left standing in the living room in contemplation. It's not like I haven't thought it through, leaving with my mom means abandoning my grandma here all alone.
Maybe it makes me a bad person, but despite how much I care about my grandmother, I never once considered not leaving. I do feel bad, but I can not, and will not live my life for others.
I let out a long sigh, and only after eating enough food for 2 full grown men do I decide to check my status, '6 days of non stop training, that has to account for something right?'
"Status."
[Julian Krueger] [Enhancer]
[Nen: 1160/1165]
[Ten: 38/?]
[Ren: 5/?]
[Zetsu: 0/?]
[Gyo: 0/?]
[Ken: 0/?]
[Shu: 0/?]
[In: 0/?]
[Ryu: 0/?]
[En: 0/?]
[Stat Points: 0]
"Holy shit!" I exclaim, if I wasn't seated on a table still full of food I would have jumped to my feet in shock.
"38!?" That's more than double what it was before, which if you do the math isn't that impressive, it took me around a week to get my Ten from 1 to 15, so another week to get it from 15 to 38 is nice, but not 'that' impressive, right?
Wrong!
The higher the number the harder it is to increase, from 5 to 10 happened a lot easier and a lot quicker than 10 to 15.
If there's any consolation for the loss of speed in progress it's that these numbers aren't linear, 20 is not 2 times the amount of 10 it's more than twice as good.
Nen quantity on the other hand is linear, 1,000 is half of 2,000, 4,000 is twice that, you get the idea.
I kept staring at my screen with my jaw dropped ready for it to suddenly change and say side.
It obviously doesn't, "This I gotta see."
I vacuum up whatever I haven't finished eating into my greasy throat hole and head to my room upstairs for some privacy.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Hup.
I hold my breath and flare my Aura suddenly, using what little Ren knowledge I know, before switching over to Ten to contain said Aura.
I immediately notice the difference, it's so much easier now.
It takes very little effort to control, I can move it around and shape it with a little more effort.
If before my Ten was a stream of water full of trash and large rocks that messed up the flow, now my Ten is like a steady river, flowing with a gentle yet strong force, flowing uninterrupted. It barely needed me to contain it, my body almost did it subconsciously.
I guess this is what Wing meant when he said you can even keep up Ten while you sleep.
I'm sure I'm not at that point yet, but I'm probably close.
I smirk, feeling a bit cocky, 'Not bad for 2 weeks of effort.'
My original plan was to use the first month my mother is gone to work strictly on my Ten and then use the remaining month to solely train my Ren.
'Maybe I can start training Ren earl-" I stop the thought I was having by slapping myself in the face hard enough to disrupt my Ten flow.
'No I made up my mind earlier so that's what I'll do. Nen responds to feelings, willpower and most importantly resolve.'
'I can't be a wishy-washy bitch or my Nen won't respect me.' I think nodding my head as if I just came upon enlightenment.
Of course I want to work on my Ren more than my Ten. Ten is the act of shrouding myself in Aura and containing it in a flow-y state.
Cool, sure. But it's nothing compared to how Ren feels, flexing out your Aura and displaying its power, it's basically how Nen user's compare strength.
An elaborate dick measuring contest, if you will.
Ren is kind of like spiritual pressure from bleach.
I assume.
'Now that I think about it I never got around to reading bleach, seemed kinda mid… good thing no one can read my thoughts, I would probably get flamed for that one.' I let out a shiver.
I look out my window, 'I still have a few hours before I need to go to sleep, I guess I should get some more training in.'
Training indeed, for the rest of what was left in the day I put my heart and soul into training.
For the next two weeks in fact, it was a cycle day in and day out of non stop training and try as I might I was not able to enter that dreamlike trance that enhanced my training speed, I was almost resentful towards our next door neighbor for waking me from it.
Regardless I was still able to achieve some results, though not to the sma extreme.
–0–
"297…298…2-299…" I stop and rest in position, my arms shake from not only my weight but the weights I stacked on my back as well.
'You can do this.' I took a deep breath and, "300!"
Immediately upon completion I collapse on my stomach letting out a groan.
"Ugh, ow." I roll to get the weights off me and just lay, exhausted and in Yamcha pose for maximum recovery speed.
The hardest part wasn't the exercise or even the weights, it was maintaining my Ten all the while.
The fact that I could do it at all shows my progress. Calling up my status I could see that my Ten and Ren both progressed again, though nothing to the extreme like before.
My Ten increased from 38 to 45, increasing by 7, my Ren increased by 1, not a lot but I wasn't training it, so I'll take what I can get. My Nen capacity increased by a whole 100 units too, so that's nice.
Finally though I can focus on what's really important, I let out a grin and flexed my muscles. The whole month has been leading up to this.
Right before I can train my Ren-
"JULIAN! Mr. Poorfarmer needs your help, moving some stuff!" I hear my grandmother's voice yell out from downstairs.
I think about ignoring her and pretending like I'm asleep despite how early it is. I think better of it though, I wouldn't want to be hit with a flip flop, or by some super cane powered flip flop throw.
'That damn, Mr. Poorfarmer, he's probably a plant hired by mom to keep me from progressing, I'm on to you Poverty, I'm on to you.'
Yes, that's his real name, Poverty Poorfarmer.
Don't judge.
I race out desperate to finish what's probably a tedious task as quickly as possible. I make sure to make some noise so grandma knows I left and she doesn't think I'm ignoring her.
I guess I shouldn't be so harsh on old man Poverty. He has bad knees after all.
Knock Knock.
I knock on the door while impatiently bouncing at the balls of my feet.
A minute or so with no answer, I attempt to knock again but the door opens before I can, leaving me to hit nothing but air.
"Hey Mr. Poorfar-, boobs." I trail off as instead of being greeted by the near eye level old man, I'm greeted by a giant pair of boobs, now I'm no pervert, but like most men, I am a connoisseur.
If it takes me a second to stop staring, that's only because I'm busy assessing the situation, looking for danger and what not, a true hunter's instinct if there ever was one.
No, really!
I look up and almost jump back in fright at the way the woman who opened the door is contorted, her neck longer than I thought humanly possible was dangling over my head and staring at me with a deep frown.
Once she realizes I turned to look at her, her expression changes to one of a pleasant smile so quickly I feel like I imagined it.
I blink and she moves from the position she was at, at an alarming speed.
"Ah, you must be Julian." She says pleasantly.
"My grandfather told me we'd be expecting you."
I'm obviously weirded out, "Uh-huh, well can I speak with him." I ask.
"Of course, follow me." She says as she turns away and leads me into the house.
I follow despite my growing apprehension, 'Wait, did Mr. Poorfarmer have a granddaughter?'
'I thought he never married?' I'm cut off from my thoughts when we arrive at the living room area, where I find the old man laying on his couch with his mouth wide agape, and eyes vacant.
I call out to him worried, but as soon as he hears my voice, he shoots up into a sitting position and looks at me with a wide smile.
"Oh Julian, you're here, delightful." He says with the same polite and pleasant voice his granddaughter had, it was somehow more disturbing on him, the usually gruff and stern old man.
"Hey, uh, Mr. Poorfarmer, you needed me to move some stuff." I ask, trying to speed this up as much as possible.
I'm not an idiot, I can tell some Nen shenanigans is going on right now, I can feel faint traces of Nen around Mr. Poorfarmer neck, and he's conveniently wearing a scarf, something I've never seen before.
Pair this with the fact that I feel no Aura from his alleged granddaughter, and it was pretty obvious something is going on.
You would think not being able to feel her Aura, that would prove she's just a civilian, but it's the opposite. I can feel the Aura of everyone in this village, even if it's faint, the fact that I feel nothing from her means she's using Zetsu.
I could give her the benefit of the doubt and say she's using it unconsciously like Gon first did, but given how creepy this entire visit has been, I'm not willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
My instincts tell me she's trouble, and if I can't trust my instincts, then what can I trust?
… Cold hard evidence I guess, but that's besides the point.
"Move things?" The old man's smile slips away looking genuinely confused as if he can't process what I just asked him.
His smile is back full force a moment later, "Oh! Right," he chuckles, "Well Julian you took so long, we already moved everything, so don't worry about it."
"Is that so, I'm sorry. I guess I'll be on my way then." I say trying to weasel out of there.
Not even mentioning the fact that I arrived at his house within minutes of his calling.
"Now, now, what's the rush?" He says standing and subsequently blocking my path.
"I haven't even introduced you to my granddaughter yet, Maria, introduce yourself."
"She came all this way to meet you-, *cough*, I mean visit me. She's probably itching for some human contact other than me." he finishes his statement with a chuckle.
I act like the oblivious 10 year old I should be and ignore his stumble.
"HI, I'm Julian." Guess I'll play along for now, I can't have her know I'm on to her.
"Hello Julian, my name is Maria. Nice to meet you." She says with a wide smile.
Shocker.
"I'll leave you two kids to socialize." Says old man Poorfarmer, walking away. Despite the obvious at least 10 year age difference, he refers to both of us as kids.
"So Julian, I heard your mother's a Hunter, what's that like." She tries asking innocently, but as I see it as the blatant prodding that it is.
"It's really cool!" The great thing about being a kid is that answers like that not only suffice, but are expected of children.
My short answer seems to annoy her so she fishes for more, "Yeah, I bet you're proud of her. You must love your mom a lot right?" She asks for some reason emphasizing 'a lot' while leaning forward and staring at me intently.
It's a weird change in atmosphere but I answer even as she starts to lose her smile, "Mhm! My mom is the most important person in the world to me."
"Is that so?" She leans so that our faces are barely inches apart, "Even more than your grandmother? For example, who would you rather be hurt?"
My Ren spikes as I hear her infuriating question, 'Is that a threat!? Is she still fishing?'?
I look her in the eyes and see nothing but a cold and calculating snake.
'Fuck! I should have kept my cool! I need to play it off.' I think desperately, I don't like my odds of winning this fight as it stands.
"What!? I wouldn't want either to be hurt!" I try to convey my anger, the same way a child would, "I don't want to talk anymore."
I finish my statement by immaturely turning my head with a 'hmph'. I storm out ignoring Maria cries to wait, I storm past the old man as well.
At least I found a way to leave semi-naturally.
I get home inform my grandma and then lock myself in my room, I take a deep breath, looking to the world as serene as a sleeping newborn, before-
"FUCK!!!"
"AGH! I'M SO PISSED" I rage in the middle of my room, ironically enough making use of Ren, as I stomped around. I wasn't enjoying it however, despite how much I was looking forward to it earlier.
'Alright Julian, calm down. You're probably just being paranoid, she's a nen user, she obviously knew you were one as well, even before meeting.' Which has to be true, it's not like I've been very secretive of my Nen training.
She probably felt my Aura fluctuate a million times over the course of however long she's been here.
If that's the case then her making me upset was probably some kind of test to see if I was suspicious of her. If my Aura had reacted only to be artificially calmed down by my hand, then obviously it'd be because I was trying to hide something from her.
As far as she knows, I don't know she's a nen user, so forcibly calming down my Aura, or trying to play it off as me not being upset despite my Aura clearly indicating the opposite, would have meant my suspicion.
The fact that I reacted how I did probably gave her peace of mind, it's the way any child with Nen would react upon provocation. Even if I attacked her it probably would have been in character honestly, children are inherently selfish and don't think consequences through.
I feel better after rationalizing everything but I'm still upset. I need to have better control of my emotions, what's the point of all my Ten training if I can't even keep a level head.
I finally calm down, I release my Ren as I'm getting kinda tired.
I check my Nen and almost can't believe it.
[Nen: 302/1265]
'What!? It's only been a few minutes.' No wonder I'm so tired, I really do have to work on my Ren, how am I supposed to fight with such an inefficient Aura output.
Gon and Killia could hold their Ren for 3 hours by the chimera ant Arc, I don't need to train it to that extent yet, but at least 30 minutes, that's my goal.
'I should probably call my mom and tell her what's going on.' As I'm going to dial her number however I stop, 'Wait, does that mean she will grade me as soon as she comes back, or would she wait another month or so before my evaluation.'
I try to remember her exact wording.
"If you're Aura, in other words your Ren isn't at least this strong-" She cuts herself off by flexing her Ren, and although I can't use Gyo to physically see it, I could definitely feel it.
"If it isn't at least that strong by the time I come back then forget about being trained by me, ever." She says resolutely.
Dammit, if that's the case then the moment she comes back if my Ren isn't as what she showed, then I lose the bet, something I can't allow.
She said she could be gone anywhere between 2 and 3 months, that wasn't part of the agreement however, just when she comes back if I call her back early, the bet is in effect.
I pull my hand back and I decide not to dial her.
I know full well what this means, I'm putting the whole village in danger for my own selfish reasons.
Potentially sacrificing our neighbor, who still may or may not be able to be saved. Purely for my own selfish desires.
Letting Maria run free and potentially hurt others. I'm a massive hypocrite, I raged at the mere thought I had of Maria's perceived threat towards my grandmother.
Yet I'm knowingly letting a dangerous Nen user live right next to her, when I could get rid of her with a simple phone call.
I'm the greatest threat against my grandma, not Maria.
I'm a monster…
…but you know what… that's okay, I'll fit right in this world of fellow monsters called hunters.
If I do something, I go all out. No holding back.
I'll become the greatest monster this world has ever seen.