Hello everyone, this is Gon Freecss, and I'm not really kidding when I say it feels like I'm about to explode from the inside out. This is what happens with just Ken—I have major respect for the original Gon who achieved even further compression with Ko.
The instant Netero and Gon clashed, the shockwave generated by their bodies and auras sent Zushi flying. Gin, who was nearby, managed to catch him, but with rocks and debris now mixed into the shockwaves, the entire group was forced to take even more distance from the fight. Zushi, held helplessly by the scruff of his neck in Gin's mouth, found himself drawn into a battle he could actually follow with his own eyes, unlike the previous sparring match which had been a complete blur.
As he calmly parried each fist—fists that looked far larger than they actually were as they came at him—Netero's mind was in a state of frenzied chaos, a far cry from his composed exterior.
(This is bad!! What is this kid, what in the world is he!? He's already more of a monster of pure violence than I am!)
From the very first exchange, Netero had abandoned any thought of fighting on Gon's terms—that is, a contest of pure strength. The culmination of Netero's power, his Enhancement training and aura control techniques honed over a lifetime far longer than Gon's, was being purely outmatched by Gon's simple Prison technique, which wasn't even using Ryu. He now perfectly understood the meaning behind his old rival's words—the man who had once challenged him to a fistfight with less than a fraction of his own aura output, who had boasted that mastering this technique would allow one to match Netero in a pure contest of strength.
(To think I'd be forced onto the defensive, merely parrying… I hate to say I'm getting old, but this might have been impossible for me even in my prime.)
Fist after fist, each one like a strike of Ko from a first-rate Enhancer, rained down on him from above due to their height difference. Not a single blow was weak enough to be taken head-on; he was forced to either evade or redirect every single one. The aftershocks from Gon's fists and the impacts Netero channeled into the ground shattered the earth, and the ever-growing crater steadily lowered their elevation with each passing moment.
(This is getting dangerous. For both our sakes, I should reset this.)
Just as the number of Gon's parried blows surpassed three digits, Netero shot out from the center of the excavated crater as if flung. While Wing stared in shock at Netero's sweat-drenched and breathless state, Leorio let out a scream as he saw Gon emerge from the crater after him.
"Stop, Gon! Any more than this and even I can't heal you easily! The match is over!"
Gon's entire body was discolored a dark, bruised purple from severe internal bleeding. Leorio's eyes could also spot stress fractures and torn ligaments in his joints. As everyone stood speechless at the gruesome sight, a winded Gon turned to Leorio with an apologetic look.
"Sorry, Leorio. I can't stop yet. I'm just a little bit closer to climbing another step… a step on the staircase to the peak I'm aiming for."
"You idiot! There's a limit to how much you can boost your healing with Nen! A normal person wouldn't just be unable to move, they'd be in enough pain to die from shock!"
Gon gave a pained smile at Leorio's words but turned back to face Netero, who likewise had not broken his ready stance.
"Tch! Hey, Chairman Netero, how about this? I'll heal your hand, and you let me treat Gon! It'll make the match last longer, so it's not a bad deal, right?"
"Ho ho… so you noticed. But no thank you. This moment, this fleeting exchange of blows, is what truly provides nourishment."
As he spoke, Netero waved his right hand. It was not only bleeding in several places but was swollen to nearly twice its normal size. Having been injured in the initial clash, his hand was simply no match for the sheer weight of Gon's fists, making it impossible to parry them all without taking damage. Wing, horrified by what was clearly a serious injury, also pleaded for the match to be stopped, but then, a surprising objection came from Killua.
"It's nothing new for Gon not to listen. It would be much better to just let him finish this quickly. And if things get really bad, we can just stop him by force."
"Heh, stopping that looks like it would be physically back-breaking," Kurapika added. "It pains me to watch, but he looks like he's having so much fun. Let's consider mischief a child's privilege and provide adult supervision."
"…Damn it all! Gon! One shot! If you don't end this in the next hit, I'm stopping you myself, you hear me?! Give it everything you've got!"
"You can do it, Gon!"
Gon beamed at his friends' cheers, then relaxed his stance and took a deep breath. Netero also laughed, rolled his shoulders once, and gathered his aura, preparing to receive the attack with his full strength.
"You haven't attacked at all this time. Are you sure?" Gon asked.
"Ka ka ka! If you want me to attack, you'll have to show me you're strong enough to warrant it. Besides, I already said I'd take your hit."
Gon laughed back, then slowly took his stance.
He sank his hips low, twisting his upper body so far that his back was almost facing forward.
It was a stance full of openings—and one instantly recognizable to anyone who knew the original story.
As his stance settled and his movement ceased, his Ten-sized aura compressed even further, until it vanished from sight entirely.
Then, as light poured from Gon's entire body, he made his declaration to Netero.
"Let's finish this."
Netero was not careless.
Though he had no intention of attacking in this sparring match, he was confident and proud in his ability to respond to any attack without letting his guard down for even a fraction of a second.
If the blow that appeared before him like a frame-by-frame animation had been anything but a kick, he would have been able to handle it.
(A kick, at this point?!)
His planted left foot seemed to have driven a stake into the earth. His right leg, poised to strike, was visibly thicker, a literal scythe of the grim reaper.
Gon's kick, a weapon he hadn't shown until this very moment, was unleashed with impossible smoothness, effortlessly breaking the sound barrier.
As the blow rushed toward him, out-pacing the explosive BOOM of the air it displaced, Netero felt a familiar presence—the same sense of death he had felt many times in his life.
(This is impossible. For both our sakes, I have no choice.)
Leaving the supersonic kick behind, the godspeed Guanyin Bodhisattva appeared.
The instantaneous exchange, a clash that outran sound itself, was something even the inexperienced Zushi could perceive with his eyes. It was like watching a slow-motion video: Gon's roaring kick, and Netero's prayer, completed even faster, which suddenly manifested a giant Bodhisattva. In that moment faster than sound, the onlookers heard Netero's silent voice.
Hundred-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva: Second Palm.
Just before Gon's attack could reach Netero, the Bodhisattva's palm strike slammed into him from the side. As he took the hit, in the fleeting instant he was sent flying, Gon conveyed a message to Netero with his eyes.
Netero, who received Gon's message perfectly, felt the feedback through the Bodhisattva's palm, and his face twisted in utter frustration.
The moment Gon came flying toward him, Gin let out a roar to kill his momentum, simultaneously decompressing his own body to cushion the impact. He succeeded in catching Gon securely, skidding backward and carving two ten-meter-long trenches in the ground.
"Whine, whine…"
"Nice job, Gin! Stingy Operating Room: One-Man Doctor at full power, damn it!!"
"Strengthen Gon's healing factor! Inspiring Chain!!"
Gin, now back in his child-like form, frantically licked Gon's face, which looked all the more tragic in his smaller size. Leorio and Kurapika rushed over and began treatment immediately. Leorio pulled a clean sheet from his bag, laid Gon on it, and started administering both aura-based and conventional first aid. Kurapika, activating his Scarlet Eyes to enter Emperor Time, used his Inspiring Chain to boost Gon's natural healing ability.
Leorio's face went pale as he assessed Gon's body, which was a mess of hairline fractures and fissures, with muscles on the verge of tearing completely. But as his and Kurapika's treatment began, he saw the wounds healing at a terrifying rate, which made his face twitch for an entirely different reason.
"…Chairman Netero?"
When Wing, having determined that Gon was out of immediate danger, turned his attention, he found Netero sitting cross-legged next to Gon with a deep scowl on his face.
"So that was your answer. May I ask how you arrived at that conclusion?"
While the others looked on in confusion, a still-battered-looking Gon managed to sit up and face Netero.
"Thanks, Leorio, Kurapika. The sparring isn't over, so I'll heal the rest myself. You can stop now."
"Hmm, with both of us working together, it's really fast. We've taken care of the worst of it, but don't move around too much today. Have Gin carry you back."
After re-examining Gon and confirming there would be no lasting damage, Leorio asked a question he couldn't hold back any longer.
"Hey, that thousand-armed Bodhisattva… that's your Hatsu, right, Chairman? Unless I'm mistaken, wasn't that unbelievably fast?"
"I agree," said Kurapika. "Gon's kick itself was unimaginably fast, yet you struck first from a completely reactive position. To be honest, it's beyond my comprehension."
Seeing Netero remain silent with a sullen expression, Wing stepped in to briefly explain the Hundred-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva. He concluded by calling it the strongest ability he knew of, an unavoidable, lightning-fast attack born from a godspeed prayer, but Netero's expression didn't brighten. As the others watched with concern, Killua, who had been silent until now, spoke up.
"Not much good calling it the strongest ability if it was about to be broken, is there? The old man's Hatsu is pretty crazy, but when it comes to being a muscle-head, Gon wins by a landslide."
As Wing and the others voiced their surprise, Killua asked Leorio and Kurapika if they could think of a way to counter the Bodhisattva.
"Let's see," Kurapika mused. "The only things that come to my mind are to either move even faster, or try to exploit the gap between its attacks."
"Uh, maybe try to endure the attacks and wait for him to run out of gas?" Leorio suggested. "There's no way he can fire off that many of those, right?"
When Wing informed them that there were practically no gaps between attacks and that Netero could easily manage several hundred blows, all eyes turned back to Killua.
"It's much simpler than that," Killua said. "You were planning to just punch straight through those giant hands to get close, right, Gon? A moment ago, even though you were sent flying, the hand was clearly distorted, and the old man got pushed back a bit, didn't he?"
Surprised gazes focused on Netero, who sighed heavily and reluctantly agreed.
"Frustratingly, that is correct. It is not as though no one has tried the same thing before, but this is without a doubt the first time anyone has come so close to breaking through."
As the others were once again struck dumb by what was the most brute-force strategy imaginable, Netero continued.
"Those who tried before did so out of desperation, because they could think of nothing else. But you… you chose that path with conviction. I want you to tell me, what exactly do you see when you look at my Hundred-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva?"
Netero's heart was a maelstrom of complex emotions as he asked for guidance from someone more than a century his junior, but his discomfort at remaining ignorant was even greater. All eyes fell on Gon, who gathered his thoughts and, after prefacing with, "I think this is probably right," stated his conclusion.
"The Hundred-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva… it's a Hatsu for fighting something incredibly large, isn't it?"
The moment he said it, a bitter memory dominated Netero's mind.
"A large opponent? Why would you think that?" Leorio asked.
"The basic premise is this: the Bodhisattva's purpose isn't to launch a godspeed attack," Gon explained. He said that Netero was already capable of a godspeed prayer, and the Bodhisattva simply launched an attack at that same speed. Leorio was still confused.
"A Hatsu, to put it simply, is a person's wish," Gon continued. "It's a means to compensate for something you can't do, something you lack."
Netero could already deliver a godspeed blow from the start. As a martial artist who had honed his body to its peak, he wouldn't wish for help in a one-on-one fight. And if he simply wanted to extend his reach, there was no need to make the statue so enormous.
"So, it must be for something he can't handle on his own. That giant Bodhisattva was likely born as a means to fight an opponent who was just too big."
"I could see it being made large to increase its attack range against multiple opponents, not just for reach," Kurapika offered.
"If he just wanted reach, it would be more efficient in terms of aura to just extend the Bodhisattva's arms. And if you can land godspeed attacks without any gaps, you could just handle a large group with a series of one-on-one fights, right?"
When Gon argued that the strength-seeking Netero would not have overlooked such inefficiencies, Kurapika nodded, convinced by the reasoning for the statue's size. And then, Killua understood the reason for Gon's actions.
"And that's where that 'Prison' technique comes in. It's obvious, but if something is huge, it sacrifices density. So no matter how strong or fast the attack is, you can smash through it with something small and hard."
"Hah… what a muscle-brain," Leorio sighed.
While Killua and the others felt a sense of clarity, Wing's mind was reeling in alarm.
The Dark Continent—this world's forbidden land.
If Gon knew about it, that meant someone had told him. That in itself wasn't the biggest issue, as completely suppressing information about it was difficult.
(The problem is that Gon, in his quest for strength, might try to go to the Dark Continent. The power he will one day possess and his way of life—which you could call charismatic—will have a profound influence on others, for better or for worse.)
While Wing trembled, Netero was lost in his own deep self-reflection. The memory of his bitter defeat in his youth, the experience of being forced into a swift retreat by an opponent of a completely different scale, still tormented him.
(I see… I could never claim that I have never lost, but in the sense that I left that defeat unresolved… yes, I suppose this is my one true loss.)
The reason for the Bodhisattva's creation, something he himself had never questioned, now fit perfectly into place deep within Netero's heart thanks to Gon's insight. He then noticed Wing looking at him anxiously and, correctly guessing his thoughts, gave a wry smile and shook his head.
(Rest easy. Gon may look like a reckless muscle-head, but he is in fact quite shrewd and grounded. At the very least, he will not 'escape' to the Dark Continent until he is certain he is the strongest in this little sandbox.)
Netero's wry smile softened. His eyes fell upon the young saplings, who were now boisterously holding a strategy meeting for their next sparring match, this time including countermeasures for the Hundred-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva. Their figures, knowing only what was below and striving recklessly for what was above, seemed to shine brilliantly in Netero's eyes.
(Shaking off the rust, was it? It seems I was still arrogant.)
Wing, the only one watching Netero, received a shock so profound it instantly blew away all his thoughts of the Dark Continent.
The smile on Netero's face was so gruesome, so utterly terrifying, that it made even a strong man like Wing feel a baseless fear—the kind of fear a small child feels in the dead of night.
"First, shall I start by compressing the Hundred-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva? … My blood boils, it boils…♪"
The Bodhisattva, which had attained Buddhahood after passing through the realm of demons, was now about to descend into that demonic realm once more.
***
Author's Afterword:
Pardon the intrusion. Author here with some supplementary explanations again.
I'm going to offer my own personal theory on the birth of the Hundred-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva.
When and Why It Manifested:
After Netero "fled" from the Dark Continent.
Because he saw the ridiculously massive magical beasts of the Dark Continent and knew he couldn't win.
As I wrote in the chapter, I believe the Hundred-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva's ability is not to create a godspeed attack, but simply to be a massive construct that can keep up with Netero's own speed.
I tend to agree with the common fan opinion that Netero would be stronger fighting on his own. So, from there, I considered why a man like Netero, who was obsessed with pursuing strength, would create a Bodhisattva of that size. I concluded it was to counter the magical beasts of the Dark Continent.
Since it's been depicted that he went to the Dark Continent and he himself stated he fled because of how huge things were, it must have left a scar on him. I believe the ability was born semi-automatically from the bitter memory of that defeat.
As for the timing, Netero himself said he was at his strongest half a century ago, and there was no mention of the Bodhisattva being useless on the Dark Continent. Therefore, I believe he manifested and trained with it afterhe returned.
And that was the author's wild speculation.
***
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