"You, you... could it be, uh, I, you, how... ah?!"
[Don't be so incoherent, how can you not even recognize your own son?]
Saiki Kusuo heard his dad's conflicting and strange inner voice, all jumbled up in a mess. If he picked out a few key words, they were: death, ghost, revival, real or fake, and no superpower suppressor on his head!
[Oh man.] Saiki Kusuo sighed, about to start explaining.
"Mom! Kusuo came back to life! Kusuo, our Kusuo came back to life!" Kurumi Saiki scrambled back to the backyard, tumbling over himself.
Why did hearing "oh man" make him sure it was me? I haven't even started explaining yet!
...
30 minutes later.
His mom and dad's emotions finally calmed down, and the three of them sat in the old room. The inside was clean, but it had that feel of a place no one lived in for a long time, a bit weird.
"Woo woo... Kusuo, why did it take 6 years to come back? Can't Kusuo's powers return right away?"
Well, a lot happened to you... wait, what? Six years?
His dad chuckled beside him: "It's good that he's back, mom. Kusuo might have been tricked by coffee jelly..."
Saiki Kusuo didn't even feel like complaining. Six years, what kind of concept is that? Though he had expected it, his parents were still so...
"Young, right? Surprised? Mom's body age now is healthier than before you left. It shows that Kusuo's presence really wore her out back then!" The speaker had this annoying tone.
Saiki Kusuke, his older brother, whose smarts were on a superhuman level, but sadly not as good as real superpowers. He always challenged Saiki Kusuo and lost every time, so they had some tension. In the past, Saiki Kusuo often heard him thinking bad things about himself.
How did he get here, with superpowers? Probably not. Maybe he's living with the parents now? After all, six years past, it makes sense that school is done.
"Ah! Long time no see, Kusuo. Are you okay? Why do you look 19? You left for 6 years but didn't grow at all? Do superpower users stop aging forever? Then why 19 and not 18 or 20? Wait, don't say it, let me guess. You used superpowers to come back, but without the suppressor you're standing here fine, and there are unknown things on your hand and neck that look like antiques. Kusuo doesn't like wearing stuff unless needed, so these two are probably mysterious items from another world. I've looked into every superpower suppressor on Earth. Plus, you didn't use powers to return in 6 years, maybe you switched bodies and couldn't use them normally, 18-year-old Kusuo had time travel powers but not world travel..."
—"Kusuo, did your soul go to another world, become a baby, grow for 19 years until powers recovered enough to come back? Just a random guess, no idea if it's right."
[Did you get the author's outline or something?]
"Haha! I knew it. But with 19 years of new life, you didn't get a new family, right?" Saiki Kusuke said, while assembling something in his hand. Now it was clear it was the mind-reading blocker he hadn't used in ages. [Kusuo was only 17 when he left, that's unfair, he totally outdid me?]
So that makes me 36 now, experience-wise I'm totally your big brother.
More than that, how about restoring the world to six years ago? Saiki Kusuo crouched down, really planning to do it.
"I don't agree with that." Saiki Kusuke fixed his hair that covered one eye and said, "Earth finally moved forward 6 years. For you it's losing 6 years, but for us it's real 6 years felt. A lot happened in 6 years, not like going back year by year to stop a volcano."
[What matters is I'm still barely the big brother. With personal restore ability, it'd go back 7 years at once, and I'd become the little brother.]
You becoming little brother doesn't matter at all.
"Mom and dad staying young is thanks to those years of steady youth potions and daily exercise. I said it, they're healthier than 6 years ago. Restoring to then would reset their bodies and minds to before."
[Including me, in these years to meet time travel basics, my body got stronger with improved drugs, way beyond normal people, though nowhere near superpowered Kusuo. But suiting up in mecha to play brother games with Kusuo is fine.]
Saiki Kuusuke thought, then put on his mind-reading blocker. No more inner voice from him.
Saiki Kusuo: [He's the one with superpowers.]
"With the mind-reading blocker on, you can't hear my thoughts! Let's compete, Kusuo, rock paper..."
[Don't just start the game on your own, cloth.]
Saiki Kuusuke threw rock.
"Aw! Lost again, 4257th loss in a row! The number changed after 6 years, why?"
[You're still keeping track of that?]
On the other side, mom was worried about what Saiki Kusuo went through these years, really wanting to know how he was doing.
But she didn't butt into the brothers' talk, just waiting quietly beside them.
Saiki Kusuo sat down, accepting the situation in surprise, and started explaining his story.
For family who knew about his powers, Saiki Kusuo had nothing to hide.
[So and so... like this and that...]
"You went to the Hunter x Hunter world! Kusuo! Can you continue Hunter x Hunter! Write it with your Nen!" His dad, who worked in manga, shouted. [Turn the story into a continuation, add superpowered elements and make it anime. Even if the art is crap, people will watch. Hunter x Hunter fans are starving!]
Hey, even with years of no updates, the copyright is rich.
[Right, no need to draw well. Sketch the characters, fill the screen with text. Make money with novels instead of comics!]
Show some respect to the teacher who built that great world.
Saiki Kuusuke took a sip of coffee to calm down, then casually joined: "Talking about that strongest hiatus author, the one who left cliffhangers and toyed with everyone? But Yoshihiro Togashi restarted recently. The Phantom Troupe backstory is pretty surprising, lots say it's whitewashing."
Huh? Whitewashing? Don't joke, that group can't be cleaned, pure black like Illumi, the trio are top villains.
"Wanna see? It's just a bit." Saiki Kuusuke opened the manga app and handed his phone to Saiki Kusuo.
Saiki Kusuo hesitated a second, then took it.
Well, a bit curious about what Meteor City and the Phantom Troupe really are.
Manga and being in that world feel totally different. At least now, Saiki Kusuo read a few pages and got fully into it.
After all, no one spoiled Hunter x Hunter for him these years. Instead, if he didn't read fast...
[In these six years, Hunter x Hunter plot only moved a little. Most shocking was Hisoka killing Shalnark and Kortopi.] Kuniharu Saiki thought.
If he didn't read quick, guys like this would spoil it. Wonder if readers who haven't seen Hunter or just watched the anime feel a bit of a superpowered hassle now.
Saiki Kusuo thought of Kortopi who passed him a drink, and Hisoka who sometimes got frustrated and showed a bit of "cuteness."
It really is the Hunter world...
He had to keep reading the manga in his hand. After the Troupe flashback, to the end of the Ant arc, from the last plot he knew onward.
First, his travel didn't change the story, like a parallel world. Best news.
Second, he was super glad he sided with Alluka.
In the plot, after Ant arc, Gon was hurt. Killua took Nanika from home to heal him. Silva let it go, but Illumi didn't approve, chased them. Butlers followed their bosses' sides in a Zoldyck family hunt.
That's what Illumi meant by... too free! He actually let Hisoka kill Gotoh! She's the butler who watched Killua grow up?
Illumi didn't use any other butlers, but needle guy and Hisoka! Their relationship, Saiki Kusuo didn't want to complain anymore.
Election arc, in his world Netero was alive, so no that mess. Gon and his dad could meet, right?
Later page, sudden full view up at Heavens Arena, next page Chrollo Lucifer vs Hisoka Morow.
Chrollo got the bookmark ability here, death match. Explaining powers took seven or eight pages, style one face per page, each different from the deceptive soft face in his memory.
Though Saiki Kusuo mostly saw bones.
Hisoka bombed by Chrollo, Saiki Kusuo stared at the corpse a while. Thanks to dad's spoiler, he knew this guy would come back to kill.
What a weird male ghost.
Flip a few pages, Chrollo on phone, saying to steal something.
Next page, Hisoka carrying Kortopi's head from the bathroom, then kills Shalnark.
Saiki Kusuo: ...
Died too quick! Hey! He was just on phone with Shalnark last page! Gone the second he hung up?!
Even he would be shocked. Why would Hisoka go after powerless people? Doesn't he like meaningful fights?
Looking more, Hisoka planned to wipe out the whole Troupe.
Died once and went dark?
Saiki Kusuo read tons of books and manga, but this time super slow.
Because he knew these people. Memories let him imagine their thoughts then. He wondered why many did that, connected to memories, surprised Illumi and Hisoka really made an engagement vow.
Of course, he saw the Troupe's faces when they found out about Shalnark and Kortopi.
Just days ago, he saw them say they accept companion death, laughed about it.
They really can't accept it.
With the flashback, Saiki Kusuo learned first gen members weren't like the finished-look group in early manga when they formed the Phantom Troupe. They knew each other from kids in Meteor City.
And forming the Troupe, at first not like Chrollo born rebellious, chasing crime thrill, eternal thief spirit.
But after being pushed around, become the biggest bad to scare the whole world?
Like getting rained on, so tear up every umbrella elsewhere. That feel.
Even Saiki Kusuo got tangled in good vs evil for a bit.
But clearly, later Phantom Troupe killed without blinking, did whatever, lawless. No matter original intent, standard villains to remove.
Saiki Kusuo closed the phone.
Though Shalnark and Kortopi's deaths shocked him. But these are manga.
He reminded himself. Staring at manga like this is for this, right? To firmly believe everything he went through was just manga.
"How was it, done? Mom made your favorite beef rice."
[I heard.] Saiki Kusuo gave the phone back to Saiki Kuusuke .
This is the reality he should be in.
"I just fixed your phone, and sent a few texts. Guests coming soon." Saiki Kuusuke said casually.
[Oh. Wait, what? What did you send?]
"Of course, the big news of Saiki Kusuo's return!"
Why? Those guests are...
"Right, your high school friends. Most graduated and work here. They don't know you died. Basically not dead. I told them you went abroad to study, yeah, about that."
Way off, this is world travel from birth to study, or assassin class.
"After so long, Kusuo must have learned Nen. What type? Heard materialization is picky."
Don't listen to Hisoka, liar transmuter, how to trust. And I didn't learn.
"Yeah, superpowers stronger than Nen, right?"
World with neither is best.
6 years, compared to Saiki Kusuo's travel life, his old friends' lives are way too normal.
Most left high school, entered society, go with the flow, each just a tiny part. Can't get more ordinary.
Ding dong.
"Ah, guests here. Kusuo, get the door."
[You're closer, you do it.]
"Aw, why should I get the door for Kusuo's friends? 19 years no see, don't you miss them? They care so much, can't even open the door for them."
Don't keep saying friends. In Zoldyck, it'd be locked up standing punishment.
Though not in Hunter world now.
Saiki Kusuo knew who was outside. Aren, transfer student in second year, former delinquent who turned good. Remembered at graduation he wanted to be a teacher, wonder how now.
Really his friend. Since here, especially should accept it all.
Even missing 6 years time.
Saiki Kusuo moved.
Pushed Saiki Kuusuke into the room.
Closed the door, locked it.
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