A gust of wind swept past, kicking up yellow sand and carrying with it the pungent stench drifting from the garbage hill not far away.
Kisho smiled and spoke:
"Alright, I'll tell you everything I know about 'Nen'."
He sat down on the ground. Amos also sat down in front of him, though he still kept his distance.
"I don't know how to describe it precisely. I can only explain it to you in words."
Kisho recalled how that former grand leader of the Phantom Troupe had taught him back then, but…
At the time, the grand leader had him feel the aura that appeared in his body when he summoned his book, then reverse-sense that "aura," and gather it outside the body to form "Ten."
But here came the problem—Amos didn't have a book!
Kisho thought for a moment, then said:
"Can you… feel aura inside your body?"
Amos: "...?"
He looked at Kisho with a gaze that said "are you messing with me," his expression sinking.
Kisho met his eyes, and for some reason suddenly felt extremely guilty:
"...S-sorry."
"But I really didn't lie to you!"
Kisho raised his hand. In his palm, the snow-white-covered[The Fantasizing Musician] slowly took shape. Amos's pupils contracted sharply, his breathing turning rapid.
"This should be a 'Nen ability' obtained after training Nen to a certain level, but I don't actually know how one obtains it." Kisho grasped the book and looked up to meet Amos's gaze, but Amos suddenly stood up. It was as if he had seen something utterly terrifying, yet was desperately suppressing his fear.
"Your… eyes…"
"...Huh?"
Kisho thought of how, after [Song of the Four Seasons] had been taken away, he had to use Noah Barton's power to use the Nen book. He raised a hand to cover his left eye.
"It's fine. You can think of it as… um… a condition required to activate the ability."
As he said this, Kisho suddenly froze.
"A 'condition' required to activate an ability…"
Right—when Chrollo had asked him about his badge ability, he had mentioned "restrictions and vows." And when that grand leader had taken his ability, he really had required him to do several things beforehand.
"Then… to have one's own 'Nen ability,' do you also have to set up 'conditions'?"
Like writing code—you need inputs before you get outputs—ah, off topic.
What snapped Kisho back was a small stone Amos tossed at him.
He reflexively raised his hand to catch it, realizing he had spaced out while teaching. He smiled awkwardly.
"You can't see it yourself, but there really is aura constantly overflowing from your body, though it's out of control," Kisho said. "'Nen' is the ability to control that aura so you can use it freely."
Kisho let out a soft sigh.
"That's all I know. The rest is just applications of 'Nen'—but telling you that won't help anyway."
Amos fell silent. Looking at his stiff little face, Kisho felt not only guilty but also ashamed—he felt like he was using empty words to scam information.
After who knew how long, Amos spoke:
"Kisho."
He stared straight at Kisho, not avoiding his gaze at all.
"Use your 'Nen' to attack me. I want to personally experience what 'Nen' really is."
Kisho: "..."
He knew what it felt like to be attacked by Nen. When he had first come to this world, knowing nothing, he had been caught by the grand leader and subjected to Nen pressure attacks every single day. He'd been attacked by Nen pressure more often than he ate or drank water—that feeling of death constantly looming over him…
It was truly awful.
Kisho shook his head.
"The person who taught me Nen told me that only 'Nen' can resist 'Nen.' If you're attacked by Nen pressure without Nen, you'll be crushed to pieces."
"And I don't know how to control the intensity," he said, lowering his voice, enunciating each word.
"If I don't handle it properly, you'll die."
Amos slowly said:
"It's fine."
In his pitch-black eyes gathered a will—one that would seize even the slimmest chance, a resolve that didn't care even if it meant death.
"Even if I die, that's my own choice."
Kisho: "..."
He wanted to refuse, but looking into Amos's eyes, he found himself unable to say the word "no."
He could only tell Amos his decision with silence.
But Amos simply looked at him calmly, then lowered his head and said softly:
"Please."
Kisho: "..."
...
"If you feel 'aura,' you must control it as quickly as possible."
"Got it! You've already said that more than ten times!" Amos said irritably. "You don't even know how to control it yourself, so stop spouting nonsense, okay?!"
Kisho: "...S-sorry! It's all that guy who taught me Nen's fault—teaching people only halfway through. I hope he goes bald soon!"
Amos: "..."
Standing opposite Amos, Kisho steadied his mind and slowly raised his hand.
Amos felt it—the wind that had been blowing around them suddenly stopped in an instant. No, it didn't stop; it simply couldn't approach, unable to draw near this nearly solidified space.
It was like a massive piece of amber sealing him inside, pressure pouring down on him from all directions. The sensation made him unbearably uncomfortable, yet he couldn't move at all.
"This is simply using 'Nen' against you."
Kisho said softly. He paused for a moment.
"Can you keep going?"
"...Stop… talking… nonsense!" Amos ground his teeth. "It's still far from enough! Use more force!"
Kisho: "...?"
To be honest, if he hadn't seen Amos's face already turning ashen, he might have thought he'd suddenly become useless.
Peh peh! Can't say useless.
"Alright then… I'm going to start… thinking about killing… you."
As Kisho's words fell, Amos felt that the amber that had merely sealed him was instantly hurled into a polar abyss.
Standing naked in a glass box at dozens of degrees below zero, the box suspended in darkness, countless gazes and naked malice shot toward him, trying to pierce his body and see through his soul.
Amos began to tremble, his teeth making barely audible clacking sounds.
Cold sweat surged from his body, but was crushed back in by the enormous pressure, unable to escape at all.
Like a balloon compressed to its absolute limit—at the next second, it would—
"AAAAAA—!"
A powerful, pale-golden tide of aura erupted from Amos's entire body.
Trembling, eyes closed, Amos felt for the first time that power he had yearned for and obsessed over for two years. That power even made him feel an illusion of invincibility—if… if he could possess this power—
"Quick! Restrain your aura!"
He heard Kisho's voice. In the next instant, he focused his mind, using all his will to control that rampant aura. The aura dissipated at an astonishing speed, almost impossible to grasp with intent.
"If… you can't control the speed, then control the direction?"
No longer trying to draw the aura back into his body, Amos relaxed and stood there, stretching out. Just as the aura was about to burst out, he abruptly used Nen to change its direction—like pulling a lever to redirect a speeding train, or dragging a torrential waterfall back into a riverbed, making it surge within the body, endless and unceasing…
One circle, another, another… until finally, like a raging current entering the sea, it slowly calmed.
Kisho used Gyo. He saw that vigorous, pale-golden aura gradually retract into Amos's body, finally obediently enveloping him.
"...Keeping aura on the surface of the body and maintaining it without dispersing—this is called 'Ten.'"
Kisho guided him as he spoke, watching the child before him.
His voice carried a hint of sourness. He admitted it—he was jealous.
He had thought that a half-baked teacher like himself, even worse than the grand leader, could never teach Amos Nen. Who would have thought—
So the one standing before him was actually the true "genius" with the protagonist's script?!
After a moment, Amos slowly opened his eyes.
His "Ten" enveloped his body, letting him sense a world completely different from the one he had known before.
He looked at Kisho and said slowly:
"Thanks."
He fell silent for a little while longer, then said with some reluctance:
"I owe you a favor."
...
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