Chapter 9: The Spy and the Hunter
Three weeks after establishing the business, I noticed something unusual.
My Zetsu training had taught me to sense the absence of things, the gaps in natural Nen circulation. Someone had been maintaining a perfect Zetsu somewhere near my warehouseâ€"hiding, observing, waiting.
A spy.
I didn't immediately confront them. Instead, I began my own investigation. Using my Error Pathway abilities, I carefully observed the spy without revealing that I knew they existed.
The spy was a woman in her late twenties, with a lean build and cold eyes. She was talentedâ€"her Zetsu was flawless, her observation meticulous. She spent hours in different locations around the warehouse, documenting who came and went, what materials were being unloaded, how much business activity was occurring.
After three days of observation, I determined that she was a professional. Not criminal. The way she moved, the way she documented informationâ€"she was a corporate spy, likely hired to gather intelligence on my business.
The question was: who hired her?
On the fourth day of her surveillance, I decided to answer that question directly.
I left the warehouse around midnight, moving through the city's quieter streets. The spy would be observing from one of several positions she'd been usingâ€"a rooftop across from the warehouse with clear sightlines.
I climbed to that rooftop using Enhancement Nen to increase my jumping ability, arriving silently behind her position.
She was so focused on the warehouse that she didn't notice my approach until I spoke.
"You're very good but it's not good to spy on others" I said calmly.
The spy spun around, her hand moving to a weaponâ€"a small crossbow pistolâ€"but I was already there. I used my Error Pathway to steal the crossbow from her grip. It simply appeared in my hands, displaced from her possession through conceptual theft.
"Who sent you?" I asked, still speaking calmly. "And why are you watching my business?"
The spy's eyes widened as she assessed me. She recognized that I was a Nen user, and clearly dangerous. For a moment, I thought she might try to run.
Instead, she attacked.
Her Nen flared outwardâ€"she was using Ren to amplify her physical capabilities. She came at me with a series of rapid strikes, clearly trained in hand-to-hand combat.
I sidestepped the first strike easily, using only Ten to protect myself. No need for offense yetâ€"I wanted to understand her abilities.
Her style was efficient and direct, but predictable. She was likely a Transmutation or Enhancement-type user, focused on physical combat rather than complex Nen techniques.
"You're not going to get any information from me," she said during a momentary break in her attacks.
"We'll see about that," I replied.
I decided that this fight should serve as a lessonâ€"both to her and to anyone who might learn about what happened here.
I let her continue attacking for approximately one minute, allowing her to exhaust some of her Nen and understand that direct physical combat wouldn't work against me. She landed zero effective hits. I dodged everything with minimal effort.
Then I began the real demonstration.
When she threw a punch at my face, I entered a light Ren state and stole her punch's momentum before it reached me. The force she'd built up through acceleration and Nen amplificationâ€"I stole all of it. Her fist came at me with no power behind it, moving in slow motion.
She staggered backward, shocked.
She tried a spinning kick, attempting to use rotational momentum to overcome my defenses. I stole the rotation. Her body simply stopped mid-spin, leaving her completely off-balance and vulnerable.
She attempted to enhance her speed using full Renâ€"trying to blur past me and escape the rooftop. I maintained perfect Ten while using my Hatsu to steal her certainty about which direction she was moving.
She ended up running directly toward the rooftop's edge, unable to correct course because I'd stolen her mental certainty about her own direction. At the last moment, I stole her momentum and she stopped inches from the edge.
"You're not escaping," I said quietly. "And you're not getting hurt unless you refuse to answer my questions. Those are your only options now."
The spy was breathing heavily, her Nen depleted from multiple failed attempts. She sank to the ground, recognizing defeat.
I maintained a perfect Ten shield while sitting across from her on the rooftop, well outside her striking range.
"Your name?" I asked.
"Lyra," she said after a moment's hesitation.
"Who hired you, Lyra?"
Lyra was silent, her professional training warring with the reality that she was completely outmatched.
"I can make you talk," I said, not threateningly but as a simple statement of fact. " I can steal your very ability to lie. But I'm giving you a choiceâ€"tell me voluntarily, and you walk away from this. Refuse, and things get... complicated."
Lyra studied my face, trying to determine if I was bluffing.
I wasn't.
"North Star Trading," she finally said. "They hired me to gather intelligence on your business. They want to know how you're acquiring such high-quality rare materials so quickly. They're afraid you're going to undercut their market share."
North Star Trading. One of the major trading companies in York New City. I should have anticipated thisâ€"I was moving too quickly, expanding too aggressively. Competitors would notice.
"Who specifically at North Star hired you?" I asked.
"Garrett Vale. He's the Vice President of Acquisitions," Lyra said.
I nodded, processing this information. "You're going to give me a message to deliver to Garrett Vale."
I spent the next hour with Lyra, using my Error Pathway to steal her knowledge of North Star Trading's operations, their vulnerabilities, their current deals, and their strategic plans. I learned far more from her than she'd learned from watching my warehouse.
Then I used my Zetsu ability to put her into a state where she couldn't remember the details of our encounter clearly. She'd remember being defeated by a skilled Nen user, but the specifics would be fuzzyâ€"a safety measure against her reporting precise details to her employers.
Before I left the rooftop, I gave her a message:
"Tell Garrett Vale that the Kurta Materials Trading Company is protected. Tell him that any further attempts at espionage will result in consequences. Tell him that I know everything about his business operations now, and I could destroy him if I chose to. But I'm not going to. Instead, I'm going to offer him a business proposition: cooperation instead of competition."
"He won't accept a proposition from someone he knows nothing about," Lyra said, confused.
"He will," I replied, "because I'm going to visit him personally and make it impossible for him to refuse."
Two days later, I walked into North Star Trading Company's headquarters with perfect confidence.
I was dressed in simple but high-quality clothing, no longer in Kurta traditional garments. I maintained a perfect Ten shield, completely invisible to casual Nen perception.
The security guard at the front desk tried to stop me.
I used my Hatsu to steal his certainty that I was a threat. He suddenly felt like I was a completely normal person, someone who obviously belonged there, someone who obviously had permission to enter.
I walked directly to Garrett Vale's office on the third floor.
Vale was a man in his fifties, well-built, with the bearing of someone accustomed to command. He looked up from his desk as I entered without knocking.
For a moment, he was shocked by my entry. Then recognition dawnedâ€"he'd obviously seen Lyra's report and was wondering who'd defeated her.
"Who are you?" he demanded, his hand moving toward an emergency button.
I closed the office door behind me and activated a light Ren, allowing my aura to become slightly visible. Not enough to be overtly threatening, but enough that he could sense my power.
Vale's hand stopped moving toward the button.
"My name is Ben," I said, sitting in the chair across from his desk without invitation. "I'm the founder of Kurta Materials Trading Company. You sent a spy to investigate my business. Now I'm here to investigate you."
Vale's expression shifted to calculation. "The spy didn't report back."
"No," I confirmed. "She's fine, by the way. Just had a very educational experience."
I stole Vale's certainty about his own power. For a moment, he experienced the absolute knowledge that he was completely outmatched, that any resistance would be futile. I let that knowledge settle into him for exactly five seconds, then released it.
Vale went pale.
"What do you want?" he asked, his tone completely different now. Professional respect mixed with fear.
"I want to make a deal," I said. "North Star Trading and Kurta Materials Trading Company form a partnership. We combine our distribution networks, we share suppliers, we coordinate on pricing to eliminate destructive competition."
"And if I refuse?" Vale asked, but his heart wasn't in the question.
"Then I'll use the knowledge your spy gave me about your business to systematically undercut your market position until you go bankrupt. I could do it within six months if I chose to. But I don't want to. Competition is inefficient. Partnership is efficient. I'd prefer partnership."
Vale considered this carefully. He was a businessman, which meant he understood that sometimes the smart choice was capitulation.
"What are the terms?" he asked finally.
"Fifty-fifty partnership," I said. "You provide your existing distribution network and client relationships. I provide access to high-quality rare materials with prices lower than your current suppliers. Profits split equally. And no more spying. You want information about my operations, you ask. I want information about yours, you provide it."
"Your materials are that much better?" Vale asked skeptically.
"Yes," I said simply. "I have access to sources you don't have. And I can undercut your current suppliers by approximately twenty percent while still maintaining healthy margins."
Vale stood and walked to the window, looking out at the city. "If I do this, if I partner with you, what happens to my relationship with my existing suppliers?"
"You can maintain them for products I don't supply," I said. "But any product I supply, you source from me. That's the deal."
Vale turned back to me. "You're very confident for someone I've never heard of before."
"I have reason to be," I replied.
After a long moment, Vale smiled slightly. "Alright. Partnership. We'll draw up contracts."
That afternoon, Rai found me in my warehouse office looking extremely satisfied.
"You have a very strange expression," he observed. "What happened?"
"I was attacked by a corporate spy, demonstrated complete dominance in combat, extracted intelligence from her, then used that intelligence to force a business partnership with her employers," I summarized.
Rai stared at me. "Just another day for you, then?"
"Essentially," I agreed.
The partnership with North Star Trading was a game-changer. Suddenly, I had access to their established distribution network, their clients, and their market relationships. In exchange, I provided lower-cost, higher-quality materials.
By the end of the month, Kurta Materials Trading Company's monthly profit had tripled to approximately twenty-four million Jenny.
More importantly, I'd established myself as someone not to be trifled with. Word spread through York New City's business community: the young man running Kurta Materials Trading was extremely dangerous and extremely capable.
Competitors stopped trying to spy on me. Instead, they started approaching with partnership proposals.
That evening, after a full day of new business negotiations, I reflected on the fight with Lyra.
I'd been completely in control the entire time. I hadn't needed to use my full power, hadn't needed to truly struggle. I'd simply demonstrated various applications of my Nen fundamentalsâ€"Ten, Zetsu, Ren, and Hatsuâ€"and she had been utterly outmatched.
Mentally, I compared my power to where it had been a month ago.
At that point, I estimated I was equivalent to a mid-tier skilled Nen user.
Now, with my business operations running smoothly and my Nen training continuing daily, I believed I'd progressed beyond that.
I estimated I was now approaching the level of experienced Huntersâ€"people who'd been training for years and had developed sophisticated techniques. I wasn't at the level of the most elite Nen users, but I was approaching it.
And I still had one year remaining until the Phantom Troupe's arrival.
If I could advance to Sequence 7â€"the Cryptologistâ€"within the next six months, and then continue my training through the remaining six months.
That night, I sat by a window overlooking the harbor, watching ships come and go, and I made a decision.
I'd been holding back on my sequence advancement, wanting to ensure perfect mastery of Sequence 8 before attempting to reach Sequence 7. But my mastery was now nearly complete. My integration of Ten, Zetsu, Ren, and Hatsu was seamless. My application of these techniques was sophisticated and creative.
It was time to attempt the breakthrough.
But I would wait until the right momentâ€"when I had completed Phase 2 of the business expansion and recruited enough Kurta volunteers that the city operations could run without me for several weeks.
That would take approximately two to three months.
Then I would retreat to a safe location and attempt advancement to Sequence 7: the Cryptologist.