Prologue : Nen Of Flame

"Nen is limitless." It was with those three words that Chang-Feng began the last lesson of a long list he had been giving his grandson for six years now.

"Since the first dawns of our civilization, its nature has been a mystery to adepts and through ages it had been called by many names; Chi, Chakra, Mana, Ether, Hoodoo and even 'Truth' by enlightened of old. Two school of thought emerged from the reflexion. While the first one believe it to be another law of this world, the other attribute it a consciousness which we were born from. In other words, Nen is God.

"Whichever Nen is, we humans have been able to wield this law or blessing to go past the limit of our mortality and beyond, achieving power far above super-human feats.

"Since your arrival on these training grounds you have trained your body with arduous exercises, trained your mind with lengthy meditations and awakened your aura under my wise teachings. You did good. All these tribulations were for you to attain balance and to reach your inner--"

"Can we get to the test already? After all those years you are still trying to appear profound, with whom? Me? Heh. All that numbo jumbo may work on the other disciples but to be honest, it's just lame. You have tried enough. Let's get rolling Old man, it's Hatsu time!"

A frown drawed itself on Chang-Feng's brow at the interruption and his hand twitched, intent on some disciplining - Maybe sending him admist the clouds like last time? The boy desperate cries had been quite relaxing - but in the end he only sighed and took a sip of the hot tea laid before him.

"Go fetch the water then." He said.

Feng saw the twelve years old boy bolted out of his seiza into the Bonsai garden where he first filled the traditional looking pot in his hand with water from the pond; Then took a couple of leaves from the twisting trees and finally rushed back through the sliding door to his couch.

All that in just three seconds.

To many, Lee-Chang would have been a blurred image, darkened by his black Do Gi and equally black hair. His grandfather, however, had followed his every move with ease, wether were his feet which hit the ground hard with the faintest of sound without leaving lasting traces or wether was his right hand which struck the leaves like a coaling snake. He had also witnessed the 'landing' where Professional athletes and gym trainsers would have winced at the strain the boy legs and abdominal should have been subjected to at the abrupt stopping.

The boy was fine, grinning with excitement at the coming test, the water filled pot in front of him and leaves neatly packed at the side. Feng nodded at that. He had been harsh during his grandson training with tears, blood and sweat spilled but now seeing the flawless flow of the boy's Aura and his skillful use of it, was proof he did right by being heavy handed.

"It seems you have brought more than water" he said looking at the pot placed between them.

"The leaves? We will be needing that right?"

"We won't be needing the fish."

"The fish? What Is that? Another profound teachi— Oh! The fish! It was surely on the path of the pot. A second, I will bring it back."

"No need." Feng put down his tea cup and with a flick of his hand, and a 'gulp' a second later the little koi fish was back in the pond. He put one of the leaves on the water surface and went on with the lesson.

"As I said, Nen is Limitless. But we are not. When comes the time for an adept to create his Hatsu, to bring to reality the visualization he has in mind, he needs to build his ability following a set of guidelines.

"Let's take the exemple of a healing hatsu. 'When I am injured in anyway, my Hatsu will nurse me back to health. The more severe is the injury the more aura is spend' No ability will arise from this kind of visualization. Why? Because such visualization are hollow and vague. You don't wish Hatsu, you build them."

"I thought it was different with specialists?"

"We will come to them, first listen. Hatsu is the capacity to act through Nen. Wether you have to act on your surroundings or yourself you need to know, to define how. You can heal an injury by let's say, sticking back the severed tissues, speeding the natural healing process and even by transferring those very injuries to objects. Yes, you can do it that way, don't be surprised. As I said Nen is Limitless.

"Following this open Logic there is an infinity of approaches to heal an injury. You can rewind the time of the injury, link your body to an avatar so when the damage is replicated, restoring the avatar will treat the wound. You can even summon a doctor to treat you."

"A Doctor? Where will he come from?"

"Depends. Maybe the Doctor is a real person contracted beforehand or a nen entity created on the base of the adept's medical Knowledges."

He took a sip of his tea to parch his old throat.

"Men can wield Nen but they aren't Limitless. If there's a an infinite solutions to a problem, every user are restrained to a set of them. Those are limitations and the first of them are those guidelines, Nen Categories.

" There is an iron rule. Every Hatsu can only be an enhancement, a transmutation, a conjuration, an emission, a manipulation or a combination.

"Specialists," he continued faced with the obvious confusion of his disciples, "are not exceptions to the rules. Their abilities, peculiar as they could be, can be reduced to these five categories."

"Why then set them apart?" Lee asked.

"For convenience. You heard it right. Specialists are people who dangle on the edge of rules and regulations of the other five category. If enhancers are only able to act on what is real to the touch, a specialist would be able to enhance concepts like emotions and wordly law like gravity.

"If manipulators can only control people and objects, a specialist would be able to manipulate time and light.

"If conjurers are only able to invoke materials and substances, a specialist would be able to create his own world. In reality, specialist are not the only ones to bring their ability as far as the rules allow but they are undoubtedly a level above.

"Because the way their abilities are webbed is intricate and with all the Marge they have, it's difficult to determine how exactly a specialisation work, even the users might not be able to tell you how they are doing it. 'It just work!' That's why we give them their own category and why there's that presumption specialist have to just wish the ability."

"They don't?"

"No. The Truth is that there's logic behind it but they can't fully grasp it and end up rigged with conditions. Any questions?"

A silence settled in the room, the old Martial Artist saw the boy close his blue eyes in contemplation and it was after seconds turned into minutes that the question came.

"How are they building their abilities if they don't know how it works or fully comprehend it."

Feng-Chang strocked his wild gray mustaches as he pondered over the answer. "Take the healing hatsu, an adept had chosen to heal himself by accelerating his natural healing. While An enhancer might augment his metabolism, a manipulator might control the healing agents of the body to focus on the injury... allocating the ressources from ininjured parts to the the damaged one. Don't give me that look. I'm not a physician, be grateful for the exemple, punk!

"In the case of the specialist, if he choose to augment his natural healing and if he has not something proper in mind, because of not having a proper category the ability will manifest itself as a tangle of the other five and will greatly depend on the user himself. If he is, let's say, a sweet tooth, he might be able to conjure sweets that pass as catalysis for the healing system.

"It is said Hatsu is a manifestation of one nature and experiences. It couldn't be truer for specialists. Any other difficulties? No? Good, let's proceed then."

It was time to determine his category. Lee-Chang tried to calmed his beating heart, finally doing so after deep breaths and an empty mind. He placed his hands on both sides of the pot and to the trained eyes a pale substance as viscous as honey covered his hands and spread towards the pot where floated the lonely leaf.

Time seemed to dilate as both them focused their attention, looking for any changes that were expected with the Lee's influence. They were unprepared for what was to come. The leaf began to glow slightly and little tentacles grew out of its base. Then, as if reality was put on fast forward, these green threads extended, leading to other leaves and a wider stem which in turn led to even bigger foliage and sturdy roots.

In no time the leaf changed into a vining plant that creeped along the pot side and soaked in the water inside whose level had greatly decreased. The silence broke with Feng-Chang.

"That's... interesting." He said tugging at his mustaches.

"Yeah... So, what's my category?"

"What do you think?" He asked back, amused by the badly concealed elation.

"Maybe... Enhancer? Why? Because it's obvious my aura has stimulated the growth of the plant and during the process it has absorbed part of the water thus explaining this lowered level."

"It seems Logical but plants don't rely solely on water."

"Well, Aura is Life force. It could have passed for nutrients. Maybe I'm an emitter? I transferred my Aura directly in an usable form for the plant. Maybe I'm both? Enhancer and Emitter?"

"If you were, the water would have rised and changed color. it's indeed true that an enhancer could grow a plant out of a leaf but he needs to be skillful and to put clear intent behind his Aura. We both know that you're a specialist. Why are we playing this guessing game?"

Because his heart would have broke if he allowed himself to hope only for it to be shattered. He didn't say that though. "I had my doubts" what was he replied.

Lee went on. " What now? How will we go about my Hatsu? Knowing that I'm a specialist."

Feng pointed at the plant. "The first way is by analysing the Nen test. Most of the time for specialists, the result is 'unreadable' and messy but luckily, the happenings behind yours are evident. Your Nen is geared towards vitality. You have insuffled a bit of your life energy into the dying leaf and bring it back to life, a rebirth you could say." He felt the minute flickering of Lee's Aura but didn't put his mind to it.

"What you can do is to think of a Hatsu which has to do with life and vitality. However the best way to build your ability is to follow the exemple of other specialist and—" It was then that the realization hit him and everything came together. He looked at his grandson who had twinkle in his eyes and shaking hands.

He groaned in defeat and force himself to finish his explanation. "... Be true to your... Desires."

The response was direct, the boy let the breath he didn't know he was holding. He scrutinized his grandfather and master and repeated his words fearful to have misheard. "My... Desires?" He said his voice piteous.

The old man groaned again. "Yes..."

"Am I... Allowed to?"

No! He wanted to say but he remembered the Time when he was a boy under his father teachings, when he had learned he was a transmuter. "I want to create Clouds!" He had shouted to the man who wished for a more combat oriented ability. The two had argued about it for days and Nights until his father found him in his room surrounded by cotton like substances floating around lazily.

He looked again at his grandson whose breaths were ragged like a man who undertook a ten miles long marathon. Sweats formed on his forehead and slided down his smooth features onto his Do Gi. Feng could only sigh and resign himself. Stopping the boy will only be counterproductive.

"Yes," he answered" Be true to your desires. What do you want?"

"I want..."

He had asked but he already knew what the boy wanted.

"I want..."

He could have bet his whole arm on it.

"I want."

He wondered how someone this young could be this lecherous.

"I want!"

He briefly tough of that maid who took care of Lee when he was a yearling. Was it her fault?

"I want!!!"

No, if the head maid was to be believed, the toddler knew what he was seeking for behind those innocent requests. Feng threw the question out of his mind. It was common to see children smart beyond their age being born in Nen family. And better a womanizer than a bloodthirsty one.

He refocused on the discussion at hand and leveled his gaze to the blazing glare of his disciple who was now on his feet. "You have decided? Tell me then, what is that you want?"

Lee-Chang bursted. "My Waifus!"