Chapter Two: The Awakening
I didn't sleep that night.
How could I? In less than twelve hours, I'd be leading a hit squad to deliver Father's "message" to the Hao Family. People would die. Maybe I'd have to kill someone myself. The old me the real me had never even thrown a proper punch.
But that wasn't the immediate problem.
The immediate problem was that I was living in a world where people could punch through concrete walls and summon chains that could bind your soul. A world where combat wasn't about guns and numbers it was about Nen. And Regis Volpe, pampered heir to a crime empire, had never bothered learning it properly or deeply.
I needed to change that. Fast.
At three in the morning, I left my room and made my way down to the estate's lower levels. The training facilities occupied an entire floor shooting ranges, combat rings, weight rooms that looked like they belonged in a military compound. Guards watched me pass but didn't interfere. The young master's nocturnal wanderings weren't their concern.
I found what I was looking for in the back: a private training room Father used for... special purposes. The kind of room with reinforced walls and drains in the floor. Empty now, thankfully.
I locked the door behind me and stood in the center of the room, my heart hammering.
"Alright. Think. What do you know about Nen?"
The basics came from Regis's fragmented memories and my own knowledge of the series. "Nen" was life energy aura that every living being possessed. Most people never learned to control it. But those who did could achieve superhuman feats.
Four fundamental principles: Ten, Zetsu, Ren, and Hatsu.
Ten to control and maintain your aura, keeping it from leaking away. Zetsu to shut it off completely, hiding your presence. Ren to amplify your aura output, increasing physical power . And Hatsu your unique ability, determined by your Nen type.
Six types total: Enhancement, Transmutation, Emission, Conjuration, Manipulation, Specialization.
The problem? Opening your aura nodes awakening to Nen typically required either months of meditation or a dangerous process called "initiation" where an experienced user forcibly opened them for you. Wing had done it safely for Gon and Killua in the series. But I didn't have a teacher. I had maybe six hours before sunrise.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
"Feel it. The energy. It has to be there."
I stood there for what felt like hours, trying to sense something, anything. Warmth, tingling, pressure the descriptions from the manga were vague at best. My legs started to ache. Sweat dripped down my back. Nothing happened.
Frustration built in my chest like a clenched fist.
Come on. COME ON.
And then there. A flicker. Like static electricity dancing across my skin, so faint I almost missed it. I focused on that sensation, chasing it, trying to grab hold of something that felt like trying to catch smoke with bare hands.
The flicker grew stronger. Warmer. I could feel it now, really feel it a presence coiled inside my body, vast and untapped. My aura. Thanks to his strong soul after taking over this body he is fast in using nen.
"Open," I whispered.
The world exploded.
Pain lanced through every nerve as something inside me *tore* open. I gasped, dropping to my knees as invisible pressure erupted from my body. The air around me shimmered with a faint white haze my aura, leaking out in an uncontrolled flood.
"Shit. Too much. Can't"
I was bleeding energy like a ruptured pipeline. Already I could feel exhaustion creeping in, my limbs growing heavy. If I didn't stop the leak, I'd pass out. Or worse.
"Ten. Use Ten."
I gritted my teeth and imagined the energy flowing back, containing it, wrapping it around myself like a second skin. The visualization helped. Slowly, agonizingly, the wild torrent of aura began to stabilize. The white haze compressed, forming a thin layer around my body.
The pain faded. The exhaustion remained, but manageable.
I stayed on my knees, breathing hard, marveling at the sensation. It felt like wearing armor made of warmth. Protective. Alive.
"Holy shit," I muttered. "It actually worked."
The next few hours blurred together in a haze of experimentation. I practiced "Ren" pushing my aura outward in controlled bursts that made the air pressure spike. Then Zetsu by cutting off the flow entirely until I felt hollow and exposed. Each technique came easier than it should have whether because of Regis's body or some latent talent, I couldn't say.
But I needed more than basics. I needed a hatsu. A unique ability.
As dawn light began filtering through the high windows, I remembered something from the manga: the Water Divination test. A simple method to determine your Nen type. You placed a leaf on water, used Ren, and observed what happened.
I found a glass in the corner, filled it from a water cooler, and plucked a leaf from a decorative plant. Set it floating on the surface.
My hands trembled slightly as I brought them to either side of the glass.
Ren.
My aura flared. And the water turned black.
Not just dark. Black. Like ink spreading through the glass. The leaf didn't move, didn't change. It just sat there on the surface of water that now looked like liquid shadow.
I stared at it, my blood running cold.
That wasn't any of the standard results. Enhancers increased water volume. Transmuters changed taste. Emitters changed color slightly. Manipulators moved the leaf. Conjurers created impurities.
But turning the water pitch black?
"Specialist," I breathed.
The rarest, most unpredictable Nen type. The one that didn't follow normal rules. Abilities that ranged from stealing powers to seeing the future[19][20].
My mind raced. What kind of ability would I have and the thought crystallized with sudden, violent clarity. The knowledge simply appeared in my head, complete and terrifying, like it had been waiting there all along.
Predator.
I gasped as the name burned itself into my consciousness. With it came understanding the rules, the conditions, the price.
My Hatsu worked like this:
By gathering information about an enemy their abilities, weaknesses, personality, fighting style I could conjure a Nen beast specifically designed to counter them. A natural predator tailored to hunt that specific prey.
The more information I collected, the more powerful and precise the beast became. But there were restrictions:
First, the beast could only exist for 24 hours after manifestation. After that, it would dissolve back into aura.
Second, I couldn't use the ability again for 48 hours after the beast successfully defeated or neutralized its target.
Third, and most importantly: the beast consumed a massive amount of aura to create and maintain. If I tried to manifest one without sufficient information, it would be weak, potentially useless.
Knowledge was the currency. Intelligence gathering, the weapon.
I looked down at my hands, still trembling with exhaustion and adrenaline. A Nen ability based on information. On understanding your enemy better than they understood themselves. On creating their perfect counter.
It was perfect for someone who'd read the entire series. Who knew what was coming.
The Phantom Troupe. The Chimera Ants. The Succession War.
If I could gather enough information about them before those events happened, I could create predators specifically designed to survive their attacks. Maybe even turn the tables.
"Young Master Regis?"
I spun around. Marco stood in the doorway, his expression unreadable. How long had he been there?
"The sun's up," he said simply. "Viktor's waiting to brief you on tonight's operation."
Right. The Hao Family. The test. The violence I'd been trying not to think about.
I straightened, forcing my exhausted body to obey. The aura around me flickered still unstable, still new but present.
"Tell him I'll be there in ten minutes," I said.
Marco's eyes narrowed slightly, as if noticing something different about me. But he just nodded and left.
I looked back at the glass of black water, at the leaf floating on its surface.
Two years until the Hunter Exam. Two years until Gon and Killua entered this world's story. Two years until the Phantom Troupe came to Yorknew City and slaughtered everyone at the Underground Auction.
Two years to master Predator, To gather intelligence on every major threat. To create monsters that could kill monsters.
I dumped the black water down the drain and headed for the door.
Time to see if the son of a crime lord could survive his first night of real work.