Chapter 47 The Protagonist's Darkness
The country Kite and the rest were located in was next to the same NGL they had gone to in order to check for the presence of Chimera Ants. Considering the fact that he had just been told that Kite was in terrible condition, Ray didn't have to ask if they found them.
That same country was also practically adjacent to his current location, located a short plane ride away. Despite being a terrible place to live, the country itself was very open to tourists with money, so it was quick and easy to head to the airport and arrive within a few hours of the call.
As for the Hotel he left, Rayleigh was surprised that the reconstruction would only take four months after all the hijinks the Players got into. More than half his savings of several Billion was gone to pay for the damages, but he didn't care about money, so it didn't matter. At least the Players didn't kill anyone during their stay and the Hospital fees of the survivors weren't too bad since all the victims had insurance.
It was a great example of what would happen if a large group of Players got together in the same location and stayed there for two months. At least Rayleigh wasn't charged for anything they did in the city itself since they never got caught by the authorities and most of the fires had eventually been put out.
The airport he landed in was fancy in all the wrong places which emphasized where the rulers wanted the attention of others to be placed. A cab ride led him to where his friends were and four other Hunters were among them.
Before Rayleigh could even introduce himself to the others, Gon shouted, "Ray! You have to help Kite!"
Rayleigh's empathy could sense a storm of emotions from Gon, with the hope being the strongest as it tried to outshine the despair, guilt, and anger within his friend's heart.
Rayleigh doubted he'd get a story out of Gon at this point so he replied, "Show the way, I'll see what I can do."
One of the younger Hunters from the four with Gon and Killua asked gruffly, "Hey, are you really all that good at healing?"
Rayleigh shrugged but didn't answer. It wasn't like saying yes or no would stop Gon from taking him to Kite, but the young Hunter with the pompadour gritted his teeth at the brush off. Only a hand on his shoulder from another Hunter, one who seemed to be missing an arm, calmed him down.
The older two Hunters watched this exchange with interest before leading the group into a building with some underground structures.
After passing through several halls, they spotted Kite, or at least, a Frankenstein version of the sewn-together pieces of Kite.
It seemed to breathe and move, but Rayleigh could tell that it was not alive. A quick use of Gyō revealed a set of strings connected to the corpse that rose to the fingers of an invisible puppeteer-like construct.
The corpse puppet seem to have all its aura nodes closed, so it was incapable of using aura and could only move using the instincts and muscle memory of the nerves of the body.
Rayleigh shook his head. When Gon told him that Kite was in terrible condition, Ray didn't think he meant he was dead. Ray wasn't a god. Dark Transfer could bring the dead to life under the right circumstances, but the time of death had to be really recent and the injuries couldn't be too terrible.
The first thing Rayleigh did was jump up to the construct puppeteering Kite's corpse and tap on a shatterpoint while forcing a massive surge of the Force into it. As expected, the construct shattered and Kite's corpse fell limp to the ground.
Gon shouted, "Kite!" and ran over, but Rayleigh ignored him and placed his hand on the corpse's head. It was still breathing, but that would end in a few moments as the puppeteer's aura left the body and the manipulation ended.
Seeing that Rayleigh was still holding Kite, Gon asked, "Can you save him?"
Killua quietly stated, "Shush, he's doing something."
Rayleigh was certainly doing something. He was using Psychometry. When used on a living person, he could sense that person's condition and status. A corpse though was considered an object, so Rayleigh could use it to see Kite's past. He watched what happened backward. He saw the puppet being used to spar against Chimera Ants, teaching them how to fight. He saw the corpse getting sewn back together using the Nen ability of some cat-girl chimera ant that had a repulsive, sickeningly dark aura. He saw Kite fight against the same Chimera Ant and use all of his tricks and skills before he was shredded to pieces. He saw the chimera ant's first attack from a massive distance away that took Kite's arm as he shouted at Gon and Killua to run.
Rayleigh backtracked Kite's steps for several minutes. Kite was a very skilled Hunter and learning from his past would be useful for Rayleigh as well.
Eventually, the Kite corpse stopped moving and Rayleigh set it to the side.
Gon saw Kite wasn't moving as he was laid down and asked, pitifully, "Ray, why aren't you healing Kite?"
Rather than address such a ridiculous question like why he was incapable of bringing back the dead, Rayleigh looked over to Killua and said, "I asked you to look after Gon and make sure he didn't get any more head injuries. I applaud the fact that you stopped him from fighting that ant, but did you have to aim for the head?"
One of the older Hunters, the one with shoulder-length hair, sunglasses, and a very broad frame asked, "How did you know about that?"
Rayleigh replied, "I can see into the past of objects I touch or the health status of living beings I touch."
It didn't take a genius to figure out that Rayleigh referred to the corpse as an object, not a living being.
Even Gon could figure it out, and as he did, the last light of hope was snuffed out, and everything within him was engulfed in darkness.
Gon, Rayleigh, and Killua left the underground structure so that Killua could tell Ray everything that happened while the other Hunters dealt with Kite's corpse.
During and even after Killua finished the story, Gon stayed quiet as he wallowed in his guilt and regret.
Rayleigh got Gon's attention and asked, "Gon, what do you plan to do?"
Gon remained silent for a moment before answering, "I'm going to avenge Kite."
Rayleigh sighed. This somewhat explained the vision he had. Since Gon was the MC, Rayleigh could not accurately see his future, but that didn't mean he wouldn't get the occasional Force Vision. What he saw when he heard about Kite was an image of Gon being engulfed in darkness and vanishing completely.
Of course, Rayleigh had no chance to talk Gon out of his quest for revenge. Rayleigh doubted Grandmaster Yoda could talk Gon out of his quest for revenge.
Still, Rayleigh was reasonably certain that Gon was a Shonen Protagonist, the same kind as Yusuke and Ichigo, so he just had to speak to Gon using the language of Shonen Protagonists. It was time for a beatdown.
Rayleigh placed one hand on Gon's arm and the other on the top of a small devil-cat like thing on Gon's shoulder. According to Killua's story, this was an Imposed Nen from Knuckle, the Hunter with the pompadour. It had the effect of forcing Gon into a state of Zetsu for a month and was indestructible without someone who could remove Nen.
From what Rayleigh could tell when he used Psychometry, it worked by injecting the victim with the user's Emitter attribute aura until more aura had been injected than the victim had. Then the Manipulator attribute aura mixed with the Emitter attribute aura manipulated the body into using Zetsu, which closed all the aura nodes and prevented the user's foreign aura from leaving the body for a long time.
After understanding the mechanism, Rayleigh took one of Gon's hands and made a tiny blade of aura before using it to cut Gon's finger to draw blood. Rayleigh then used his control of the Force to control the small amount of Force within Gon's body and use it to force out the foreign aura that was still held within through the finger wound using a variation of Force Healing.
It took a few minutes, but once it was all out, Rayleigh tapped on the little devil-cat thing and used Shatterpoint to destroy it. The condition of the devil-cat to exist was, 'the user's aura was within the target and it had been less than 30 days since activation.' The former usually wouldn't be a problem since the target was forced into Zetsu which prevented all its aura from leaving the body, but Rayleigh ended that condition through the use of the Force.
With the destruction of the little devil-cat, Gon's aura was released, and for the first time in a while, he was pleasantly surprised. He had been under the impression that he would be unable to use his aura for another few weeks.
Killua was also shocked as he watched this entire process from the side. If removing that thing was easy, the Hunters from before would have done it.
Rayleigh then said, "Killua, take us somewhere isolated, I need to have a loud conversation with Gon."
Gon seemed confused by this but Killua got the message and led the group out of the building and out of the city.
Once they were alone, Rayleigh said, "Gon, if you want to kill that ant, you're going to have to beat me."
Gon quickly shouted in protest, "But I have to avenge Kite!"
Rayleigh shook his head, "I've told you I can see into the future sometimes right? I saw you being engulfed in darkness if you fight him." There was no need to lie to his friend.
Killua asked from the side with deep concern, "You mean he'll die?"
Rayleigh answered, "Or worse. There are worse things than death you know. You could become something else. Something unrecognizable. Something worse than the feeling you guys felt from that Ant."
Both Hunters instinctively shivered at that memory. It wasn't that the aura from that cat-girl was overwhelmingly powerful, it was just sickeningly creepy and caused every cell in the body to fear for its very existence.
Rayleigh had a much clearer sense of that feeling from his use of Psychometry, but he wasn't as affected as the others. That dark feeling was very similar to the Dark Side, but there were plenty of locations in Tython near the Temples that were drenched in the Dark Side, and Rayleigh had gotten used to them a long time ago. Like the Dark Side, the feeling from that cat-girl was like that of a predator that enjoyed tormenting its prey until its limit before devouring it alive. Piece by piece by piece. It was something primal that made any creature that felt it understand that there are worse things than death.
Gon only hesitated for a second before he shouted, "I don't care! I'm going to avenge Kite, no matter what it takes!"
Rayleigh pulled out his Lightsaber and injected his aura, causing a sparking blue aura blade to appear. Rayleigh stated, "I figured as much. But you'll definitely die if you're not strong enough, so I will stop you unless you can beat me."
Killua directly asked, "Did you change that thing?"
"Yep. I call it my Nensaber. It won't slice off limbs anymore if I don't want it to." Now that Rayleigh could adjust the lethality of his weapon, he could use it a lot more than he used to.
After confirming that the new weapon wouldn't be removing Gon's limbs, Ray took a fighting stance and met his friend's hard stare with eyes that told Gon that Ray was not joking. He would stop Gon from attempting his revenge if Gon could not beat him.
Gon took in a breath of acceptance before making his aura flare in a far stronger show of Ren than it had been before they separated, but Rayleigh had used Ren constantly over the last two months while training and demonstrating during his lessons, so his own improvement didn't lose out to Gon and Killua's.
Gon pulled his arm back and slowly called out, "First comes rock." His aura gathered into the fist behind him in the reeling back posture he always took before using any of his Rock Paper Scissors attacks.
Rayleigh didn't stop him. Gon wouldn't give up unless Rayleigh faced his strongest attack, though the sliver of confidence in Gon's eyes showed he seemed to have a plan. Probably a trick combined with a feint and some MC luck to win. Rayleigh knew exactly how to deal with that.
Rayleigh said aloud, "Open, Babylon." Saying it wasn't a condition, but doing so strengthened the imagery and allowed the Force mixed En Field to expand to a larger area than it usually would without calling out the technique's name.
Of course, with Rayleigh's aura, even while calling out the Hatsu name like an anime character, he could only expand the En Field to about two meters around him. Without using Babylon and his specialized Nensaber, he'd only be able to expand En to less than a third of a meter around him and would not be able to hold it for very long. It wasn't that he was weak, he was simply too new to Nen and had not gotten strong enough to accumulate more aura. All the restrictions on Babylon along with the Nensaber allowed him to expand En much further and for less aura than normal.
For now, Babylon could not be used to fight long distances, but it was large enough to affect his opponents that engaged in close combat.
Gon jumped forward and shouted, "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Scissors!" and a large blade of aura formed on his arm and slashed at Rayleigh's aura blade. Rayleigh was tempted to roll his eyes.
The Nensaber was not a Hatsu on its own. It was more accurate to call it a component of Babylon. Babylon-lite basically, lacking the Force-enhancing En Field. When Rayleigh did not use Babylon and injected a normal amount of aura, the Nensaber was sharper than a normal sword as the sword aura it was made of rotated like a chainsaw. When he actually used Babylon, the Nensaber was far more powerful.
Rayleigh swung the sword cleanly through Gon's aura blade and slashed him across the chest. The only thing that prevented Gon from being split in two was the fact that Rayleigh slowed the blade's rotation after shredding through Gon's attack.
The force of the somewhat dull strike also shot Gon backward as he cried out in pain before the air was fully expelled from his lungs from the impact when he crashed into the wall of an abandoned house.
Of course, a bloody slash from one end of your torso to the other is just a papercut for a stubborn MC. But that was fine with Rayleigh. Babylon was literally made to deal with protagonists and all their BS logic. Gon got up from the rubble of the collapsed wall and shot forward, trying to get into a fistfight with Rayleigh.
Once Gon was within his En Field, Rayleigh used one of his wills to concentrate on using Battle Precognition, allowing him to perceive every move Gon would make. Rayleigh also slowed the rotation of his Nensaber further until it was basically a beat stick and whacked Gon over and over while dodging every attack.
This continued for a few minutes as Gon's face and body ended up covered in purple welts and lines of blood. He knew that if Rayleigh went all out he would have lost, but his own stubbornness was not accepting the loss because he had not tried everything he could to win yet.
Gon jumped back out of Babylon's range but Rayleigh didn't step forward to meet him. Once more Gon reeled back, but this time, instead of Scissors, he shouted, "Paper!" before launching an orb of aura toward Rayleigh's head.
The attack was swatted away with his Nensaber and Gon shouted, "Round Two! Rock!" and charged Ray with a fist fully saturated with aura. It seemed that Gon set it so that if he had already called out Rock, Paper, Scissors, he didn't need to do so again for another attack when used consecutively.
The attack was almost point-blank and since Rayleigh had to set his stance to deflect the Paper attack from before, he was not in the correct position to dodge. At least, that's how it would have worked normally.
Rayleigh applied two Wills worth of Force Valor to his body to allow him to move at lightning speed and with one Will used for Battle Precognition once Gon was in range, he had the information and reaction speed necessary to move out of the way of the attack. In that instant, the rotations of Rayleigh's Nensaber also peaked to the max and a single slice up as Rayleigh got out of the way of Gon's attack saw his friend's arm severed from halfway down the wrist.
Gon's arm flew up into the air as he looked with shock at his bloody stump. The massive gushing of blood caused Gon's aura to falter and Rayleigh used that moment to smack the back of Gon's head to knock him out. He really had not expected his friend to remove his limbs,
Before he could fall to the ground, Rayleigh held him up with the Force and also used the Force to apply pressure to his friend's arm to stop the bleeding. He pulled the severed arm back down using telekinesis and set it back into Gon's wrist before he started to use Dark Transfer to heal the wound.
Babylon was still active, and even Force healing techniques were amplified within. The reason that Babylon did not end when Rayleigh sliced off Gon's arm was that he ensured it was a clean cut that he could easily repair. His Nensaber did not cauterize the wound so there was no problem with reattachment. The condition for the Kyber Crystal to break during Babylon was killing or crippling a target. Rayleigh didn't consider cleanly severed limbs crippling since such things could be healed by him. To cripple meant to wound severely enough to make recovery nearly impossible. But nearly impossible was relative. In this world where there were miracle cures and Nen abilities, a cleanly severed limb was little more than a flesh wound.
Yes, Rayleigh's Hatsu seemed incredibly restrictive, but it used his own definition of crippling. There were plenty of ways to disable someone with a sword that did not kill them and only caused wounds they could potentially make a full recovery from.
Of course, the target had to have access to some means of recovery. A poor orphan breaking his leg could be a crippling wound because he did not have the means to heal it correctly. So Rayleigh would have to at least confirm the target had access to some means of recovery before he could bend logic and reason as he pleased.
Killua ran over to Gon the moment the arm went flying but was relieved when he saw Rayleigh healing their friend. Even the cuts and scrapes and bruises Rayleigh left all over Gon were healing one at a time. One of the nicer effects of Babylon was that not only was Dark Transfer enhanced, but it was also very easy to use to heal wounds Rayleigh himself made while within.
After confirming Gon was gonna be alright, Killua asked, "Are you sure you're a pacifist?" He had just seen Gon get the stuffing beaten out of him before the final blow, so it was a normal question to ask.
Rayleigh shrugged, "What, he's perfectly fine now."
Killua rolled his eyes as Ray finished healing Gon's wounds to the point they were completely gone. The pair carried him back to the room and waited for him to wake up, something that didn't take too long since his injuries were gone and his aura was only about a third depleted.
Gon awoke with a start and first looked to confirm the presence of his hand. He gripped around the location Rayleigh had sliced it off to confirm there was nothing wrong.
Rayleigh stated, "You lost."
Gon's expression hardened for a moment before he said, "Then we'll fight again."
Rayleigh and Killua sighed. Both knew this would happen. Rather than argue, Rayleigh said, "Fine, so you know you'll probably die or worse. You don't care in the slightest. And you're gonna avenge Kite no matter what, does that sound about right?"
Gon nodded with a dark determination filling his hollow eyes.
Rayleigh continued, "Fine. I won't stop you. You just have to do one thing. It's really easy and won't require any effort. You could even do it right now, it will only take a few minutes."
Gon's eyes widened in surprise before he answered, "Okay, what do I need to do?"
Rayleigh got out a piece of paper and wrote a few lines of text down. He then wrote a phone number on the top of the paper. Rayleigh held up the sheet and said, "It's really simple. Just call the number on the top of this paper and tell the person on the other side everything here."
Gon nodded and took the paper. The shock on his face turned into horror when he saw the phone number. It was his aunt Mito's. That horror only grew worse as he read the lines he was supposed to say over the call.
-What is going to happen to me is not your fault.
-The choice I made does not reflect how you raised me.
-What will happen to me could not have been prevented if you raised me better.
-Being harsher, stricter, or meaner would not have stopped me.
-Do not think I did this because you did not love me enough.
-Please do not blame yourself for my decisions. I'm sorry for being such an idiot.
-Please forgive me for making you hurt so much.
Although it was only a few lines, Gon could only read them slowly, as each one tore through his heart. Rayleigh was basically telling him to apologize for hurting Mito with his own foolish actions before he committed them. Gon's cheeks were wet with tears by the end of the list and he was holding back his unsteady breath.
Rayleigh twisted the knife. "If you want to take part in this, you have to convince your aunt why it's your duty as a thirteen-year-old Hunter to avenge a veteran Pro Hunter who was your father's student."
Gon couldn't look at the paper anymore and threw it away while trying to argue, "But it's my fault! It's my fault Kite's dead! If I wasn't there. If I wasn't so weak! If I didn't hold him back... It's my fault! I have to avenge him!"
Rayleigh didn't shout. He simply replied in a calm voice, "I saw everything Gon. You being there or not being there would have changed nothing. Kite accepted the job himself. With or without you he would have been there. He would have encountered that ant. He would have been killed. Your presence didn't cause anything."
Seeing that his words weren't getting to him, Rayleigh grabbed Gon's shirt and shouted into his face, "Kite was not weak enough to be affected by your presence! Stop looking down on him! Blaming yourself for his death is insulting his strength!"
Gon's eyes widened at Rayleigh's outburst. Even Killua was surprised. Neither had ever seen Rayleigh raise his voice before. More so, his words made sense. Something had actually gotten through Gon's skull. Blaming himself for Kite's death was really another way of looking down on Kite.
Seeing that he was finally getting through, Rayleigh continued, "Kite's life was not yours to protect or save. His death is not yours to avenge. Every moment you blame yourself is another insult to Kite's strength."
Gon weakly argued back, "But, he's dead."
"No. He isn't," Rayleigh countered
Killua asked, "Wait, what do you mean? You said he was dead earlier."
Rayleigh corrected, "That body is a corpse, but that doesn't mean Kite is dead. Did you actually think Kite sacrificed himself for you guys? Do you think he gave up his life so you two could get away? You are either thinking too highly of yourselves or looking down too much on Kite. Even against something like that, Kite had a way out. He always had a way out."
Gon asked, "Kite's alive? Really?"
Rayleigh let slip a little smile of relief at the hope that filled Gon's eyes once more. "Of course he is. As I said. His life is not yours to protect because he can protect it just fine himself. His death is not yours to avenge because he's not dead."
Killua asked, "How the hell is he alive then? Was that body not his?"
Rayleigh nodded, "Not anymore. You guys remember what I said Ging's biggest secret was?"
Gon and Killua thought for a while and Killua was the first to remember and answer, "That he is a reincarnator?"
Rayleigh nodded. "That's right. And Ging was the one who taught Kite Crazy Slots. Within was a function that made use of the same principle that Ging used to reincarnate. Actually, what he taught Kite was even better than what he used. He'll have all of his memories without anything missing. He'll have to deal with the inconvenience of growing up again, but that's a small price to pay for a means that allows him to escape certain death. What's even better is that new Kite has already been born. Wanna see him?"
Killua asked with understandable skepticism, "How could you tell all of that?"
Rayleigh answered with confidence, "I learned it all through psychometry on his corpse. The reincarnation technique was successfully implemented before he died. Better yet, I got the feeling that those Hunters who brought the body back also found new Kite, but probably didn't recognize him. We can go over to them right now and ask if they found a newborn baby recently."
Gon wiped the tears from his eyes and shouted, "Let's do it!" He had to see Kite, see that he was okay, and see that he successfully survived death.
None of the four Hunters were really doing much. The Hunter President had gone off to perform reconnaissance and they wouldn't hear back from him for a few weeks. It didn't take long to find the guy again.
The sunglasses-wearing broad-shouldered Hunter asked, "You wanna know about the baby we found? Why?"
Rayleigh explained, "I saw everything that happened when Kite died. His Nen changed when he died into some strange Post-Mortem Nen form and took his soul with it. I think Kite reincarnated and I sensed you guys encountered it."
"Wait, seriously? That was Kite? Huh. Alright. I'll take you to her."
Gon asked with surprise, "Her?"
The large Hunter, a professional named Morel, answered with a teasing smile, "Yeah, it's a girl."
*Author's Note*
To all the guys who keep complaining that I am nerfing my MC, please remember he is a kid. I am trying for realism not just for powers, but also for mental states. The 'nerfs' are my MC's attempt to preserve his sanity at least until puberty. Most of the other Players will not even bother, and the difference will show when they are adults and their interactions. I'm surprised no one caught onto that already. Was naming one of the Players 'Lord of Madness', not a big enough hint? I mean in chapter 2 the Tavern even told the MC that they fully expected a lot of Players to turn into supervillains!
I think many readers are so used to reading MCs who are sane for no other reason than the fact that their author didn't want to write them insane. A grand majority of fanfictions, especially reincarnation ones, don't give any justifiable reason for the MC to be sane. They ignore the fact that a child's brain chemistry makes thinking like an adult at all times impossible and they just make their MC a well-balanced individual who can kill when he is 12 years old without any problems and become a completely stable adult. My MC on the other hand is going to properly earn his sanity.
If you want to see the level of insanity some of the other Players will reach upon adulthood, google search "INSANE (A Hazbin Hotel Song)" and you'll get an idea. Realistically speaking, if someone lived a life, died, and got superpowers without any kind of built-in safety, that is pretty much the level of crazy that is perfectly reasonable for them to reach. Being sane after living a life, dying, and gaining superpowers is far more unnatural if you think about it. To many, sanity is like an uncomfortable suit and mask you have to wear for your entire life. After experiencing death, would such a person even bother to wear it again?