Kisho quickly swept his gaze around the basement—no blind spots, no obstacles, yet he couldn't see a single person.
Not only the man who had just spoken, but even Beyer and his subordinates who had entered earlier were nowhere to be seen.
"How could this be…"
Such a situation that defied common sense made Kisho tense up all over in an instant.
The man's voice, dripping with mockery, drifted eerily into his ears:
"Looks like the White Eagle Association is really finished—so desperate they'd even take in a little brat like this?"
Kisho ignored him, slowly solidifying his "Ten," guarding against a sneak attack that could descend at any moment, gathering power while thinking—"Could it be an invisibility ability?"
At that very moment of thought, his ear twitched. With a sharp "bang" of a gunshot, a bullet whistled through the air from diagonally behind him, shooting straight for his temple.
In the next instant, Kisho gathered his breath and stepped, flashing aside. The bullet slammed into the wall beside him.
Kisho lowered his gaze, stomped and shattered the ground, flashed to the origin point of the shot, Nen flames condensing on his fist as he slashed out fiercely with a palm—
A streak of fire split from his hand-blade, trailing a long tail. It was as if it struck something, exploding with a "bang." As the Nen fire burst, there came a dull thud of something crashing into the wall.
But Kisho stared at the place the dull sound came from, and still saw nothing.
"I definitely hit something. But… there's no blood, and I didn't see what I hit. If it crashed into the wall, debris should have fallen."
Kisho stared at the distant wall, then turned back to look at where the bullet had landed—likewise, there was no bullet hole where one should have been.
"—It's not invisibility." A cold light flashed in Kisho's eyes as he reached a conclusion instantly. "If it were merely invisibility, it couldn't possibly alter what I'm seeing."
A sharp, icy voice came from behind him:
"Oh my, oh my, not bad at all."
"Judging by your expression, did you figure something out? What a shame—then I can't keep playing games with you."
The moment the voice fell into his ears, Kisho's left eye turned silver-blue. His fist, laced with Nen flames, swung again, smashing hard into something once more.
The recoil forced him back a small step, but he also heard something else being knocked back, crashing into the wall.
"Ugh…" The man let out a muffled groan, adjusted himself, then released a feral laugh filled with killing intent.
"Oh my, the little guy's punch has quite some force—now I'm starting to get interested."
Kisho scanned his surroundings again. This time, he used "Gyo," yet still saw nothing in his field of vision.
"…This is troublesome. Even using 'Gyo' I still can't find him—did he withdraw his Nen?"
Kisho shook his head, rejecting his own guess.
"No. Logically, it's impossible to withdraw Nen while still using a Nen ability."
"So what exactly is this person's ability?"
In a flash, countless possibilities ran through Kisho's mind, but in the end they converged on one point—
Since he entered the basement, he hadn't seen Beyer or his subordinates. Even if they were already dead, in such a short time they couldn't have vanished without a trace.
Besides that, he had hit the enemy twice already, yet hadn't seen any traces produced by combat.
Therefore, this person's Nen ability—
"It's not invisibility, but creating illusions. Erasing what I see, replacing it with whatever he wants me to see."
Kisho held his breath, sensing the next attack that could come from any angle.
"So my perception has already been affected by the illusion. Even if I'm looking straight ahead, it could be altered to behind me—when I use 'Gyo' to look in a direction, there's nothing there to begin with, so of course I can't see him."
"Oh my, oh my, looks like you've figured it out."
The man's icy voice appeared by his ear:
"In that case, I can't keep playing with you anymore."
With the voice came a blade light as cold and vicious as a venomous snake, carrying bone-deep killing intent as it slashed down toward Kisho's back.
Kisho raised his hand and threw a fireball to block it. However, the fireball passed through the blade light, landed in empty space, and exploded with a loud bang.
"Damn it—!"
Kisho's heart shook violently as he felt the shadow of death closing in. He stomped hard, shattering the stone beneath his feet, borrowing the force to twist aside—only just barely dodging the blade light falling from above. His coat sleeve was sliced open with a long, narrow gash.
The Nen-infused blade struck the ground, cracking large slabs of stone, rubble flying everywhere.
"Tch." The man's sinister voice echoed. "You dodge pretty well, kid. But how many times do you think you can dodge?"
Kisho responded with silence.
The hidden enemy could alter the origin of the "attacks" he saw, then ambush him from the complete opposite direction.
Even if the enemy's attack speed wasn't particularly fast, if this continued, once his stamina was drained, he would still fall under the enemy's blade.
"What should I do…"
Kisho pondered, pressing down stray thoughts and the fear of death, focusing all his attention on every change and sound around him, staying alert for the blade that could appear at any moment.
"If 'Gyo' lets you see 'Nen,' but requires using the eyes—then is there a technique that doesn't rely on sight, yet can still perceive Nen?"
"When 'Ten' is attached to the body's surface, bodily perception is greatly enhanced—if I expand the range of 'Ten'?!—wouldn't I be able to sense everything within the 'Ten' range as well?!"
Among the techniques he currently mastered, was there anything that could enhance the range of "Ten"?
Kisho thought of something. Then, he closed his eyes—after abandoning vision, his "Ten" instead became even more sensitive.
"Ten," then he released the Nen from within his body, expanding it like inflating a balloon, until—
The balloon was filled to perfect roundness, reaching the limit of what he could do.
He stood at the center of this balloon with a diameter of about one meter. Within the range filled with Nen, just as he had imagined, he could "see" everything more clearly than with his eyes.
His eyes were closed, yet he "saw" bright, unmistakable Nen behind him, about to approach—
"What's wrong, kid? Why aren't you struggling anymore?"
Along with the icy voice, a blade light slashed straight down toward his face.
Kisho suddenly opened his eyes, facing that attack without moving an inch.
The blade light arrived in an instant, but after falling onto him, it vanished like snow thrown into hot coals—disappearing in the blink of an eye. This attack, just as he sensed, was nothing more than an illusion.
Kisho curled his lips into a smile.
The illusory blade light fell head-on, forcing him to retreat—if he truly retreated, he would undoubtedly crash straight into the real blade, exactly as the man wanted.
"Got you!"
Kisho shouted sharply. The fist hidden at his side, which had been charging power all along, flooded with the Nen of his entire body, igniting Nen flames, and smashed fiercely to the side.
The fist struck empty air, yet a red-haired man was blasted flying out of the void, slamming heavily onto the ground. Even as he lay there gravely injured, coughing up blood, he still couldn't understand how the ability he prided himself on had been broken by this child in an instant.
The red-haired man's blade fell aside, but he had no time to care about it. His narrow eyes stared viciously at Kisho, his face full of shock, rage, and unwillingness—until, under Kisho's indifferent gaze, deep fear condensed within him.
He tried to crawl up, but with his body heavily damaged, he had no strength to rise, and couldn't even speak.
Kisho stood where he was, scanning his surroundings again.
The scene before his eyes changed the instant the enemy was heavily wounded and defeated.
The first of Beyer's subordinates who had entered lay in the center of the basement, shot through the forehead, eyes wide open in death.
The second to enter, Beyer himself, had been shot in the shoulder and lay in a corner, his life or death unknown.
Kisho withdrew his gaze and slowly walked to the red-haired man's side, looking down at him from above.
He bent down. Under the man's extremely terrified gaze, he reached to the side of his neck and lightly drew his hand across it.
Blood splattered.
Kisho withdrew his hand and stood up, staring at the person who died by his hand.
There was no helping it—this man had wanted to kill him, and he had gravely injured him.
They were already enemies. Though for a fleeting instant he had thought about letting this person go, in the very next second he was amused by his own naïve thought and curled his lips into a smile.
If he let him go, the man would retaliate. And if he wanted to live, he would have to kill even more people.
Even if it was just self-comfort—he would treat it as saving those people this man had sent to kill him.
Kisho slowly stood up, silent.
After a moment, he turned his head away. Water condensed at his fingertips, washing away the bloodstains clinging there.
He let out a self-mocking smile. He was getting more and more accustomed to the rules here.
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Vincent's Nen Ability: [What I Imagine, What You See]
Category: Specialization
Ability: Within a range not exceeding 10M x 10M x 10M, he can make anyone who enters the range see the scenes he imagines.
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I recommend checking out my new Pokémon fanfic, "Pokémon System: Me, the Strongest Champion of the League"! It features a system that isn't overpowered, keeping the story balanced and engaging. The main character isn't Ash, but an original, cool MC, which makes it even more enjoyable to read. I'd love to hear your feedback!