Chapter 48 Come at Me Together
On the way to the location, Rayleigh got a few answers from the broad-shouldered sunglasses-wearing Hunter. Morel was the master of the two younger Hunters he met earlier. Knuckle was the one with the pompadour while Shoot was the one with the single arm.
The other, thin-looking Hunter, Morel's partner, was named Nov. For some reason, the man always dressed like he was about to take part in a board of directors meeting. All he needed was a $10,000 briefcase and a few signet rings and no one would question his presence if he walked around the main office of a Fortune 500 company.
To keep up a conversation along the way, Rayleigh also asked, "Hey Killua, did you get rid of that Nen in your skull?"
Killua looked surprised about that for a moment before asking, "You knew about that?"
Rayleigh nodded, "I've healed you before, so I knew there was a needle inside your brain and I could sense the aura it had after we awoke our Nen. I was going to mention it, but I got a feeling that you'd become stronger if you dealt with it yourself."
Killua nodded, "Ah, that makes sense. And yeah. Because of how it affected me, I figured out how to make my Nen affect my brain just by fighting it. It was my brother's needle."
Ray didn't hide the surprise that simple statement gave him. Rayleigh could use the Force to program his actions because the Force could be used through pure information. Killua could turn his aura into electricity and theoretically use it to affect his nerves and brain, but the process would have been completely different for him. Figuring it out would have been a long series of painful trial-and-error attempts. If Illumi had not put that needle in Killua's head and if Killua had not been so adamant about fighting it, he may not have figured out the trick to using his transformed aura to affect his brain and nerves.
Morel was driving them to the location of Kite's reincarnation and heard the conversation since they weren't trying to hide it. He added, "So that's why you seem a lot stronger than the last time I saw you. Come to think about it, what about your friend?" He gestured back to Gon and asked him, "Weren't you supposed to be locked in a state of Zetsu for a month? It's only been a few days."
Gon answered, "Ah, Ray broke it."
Morel then gestured to Rayleigh, "You're a Nen remover?"
Rayleigh considered it before answering, "I have a means to remove foreign imposed aura on a person. So I guess, kinda."
Morel gave an impressed whistle. He had a better understanding of Knuckle's ability than most, and he knew it should not have been an easy thing to remove without multiple abilities or a single specialized ability.
The house they arrived in had a number of guards and within was a winged chimera ant taking care of a red-haired baby girl with freckles. If you ignored the rat-like tail that sprouted through her diaper, she looked perfectly human.
The baby was in the middle of a meal when she saw Morel lead the trio of tiny Hunters inside. The babysitting Chimera Ant tensed for a moment at the presence of the strangers but relaxed some when he noticed Morel was the one bringing them. He asked, "Was there a problem?"
Morel looked again at the baby girl who was looking right back at him and the guests. She was a lot bigger than the last time he saw her and figured she'd reach adulthood in a year or two. That might have concerned him before, but seeing the intelligence in those eyes, he smiled and asked, "Hey Kite, you in there?"
The baby nodded and said, "Yeah. You found out? Ah, it was you wasn't it?" She looked at Rayleigh to confirm.
Rayleigh answered, "Yeah, I'm good with figuring things like that out. Gon was feeling guilty and thinking you died because of him."
The baby looked very angry at this and looked at Gon before shouting, "What?! You idiot! I died because I was weaker than my opponent! What the hell does that have to do with you!"
Gon wanted to rush up and apologize, but the baby's shouting made him confused and worried.
Killua asked, "Hey Ray, can you understand what she's saying?"
Rayleigh replied, "Of course, I can."
Morel gave him an inquisitive look through those sunglasses and asked, "How?"
Rayleigh answered nonchalantly, "I speak baby."
That answer of course only drew more stares. Baby Kite was only making baby noises but since it was an active adult mind that was making those noises, Rayleigh could perfectly understand what she was saying thanks to the Force.
Seeing this, Gon approached and said, "Kite. I'm sorry. It's my fault-"
Kite bonked Gon's head with a rattle no one saw her grab and she berated him using angry baby noises. Rayleigh translated, "Kite says if you feel bad about being weak then you should just train to get stronger." More baby noises. Ray shook his head, "I was able to watch the whole fight using one of my skills, so I already planned to tell everyone about that." And some more baby noises directed at Gon. "She says it is not a crime to lose. Even Ging has lost. There was no fault in what happened, so if you keep blaming yourself, I will kick your ass." Baby Kite repeatedly bonked Gon over the head with every word of Rayleigh's translation.
After seeing Gon nod in surrender, baby Kite nodded triumphantly and then went back to her meal. Adult mind or not, a short attention span just came with the territory of being a baby.
Morel looked amused while Killua and that chimera ant looked bewildered. That certainly wasn't a scene one sees every day.
After accepting a scolding from baby Kite, Gon's eyes and heart seemed far lighter. Rayleigh wasn't getting any Force visions so he had no idea if his actions prevented Gon from vanishing into the darkness, but he could safely say he'd done what he could. The rest was up to Gon.
Morel drove them back to the city they were staying at. The President of the Hunter Association suspected that the leader of the Chimera Ants had taken over the head of the country that was on the same strip of land as the NGL, but on the opposite side. He had also given directions for everyone to sit tight while he did reconnaissance and that he would call them once he decided on a plan. That however would take a few weeks, so everyone was just sitting there, waiting.
Since Gon kinda detoured their first meeting, Morel wanted to properly introduce Rayleigh to his students and Nov. They were waiting for President Netero's call to head over, but Gon and Killua were kinda just there for the ride. Previously, the two had been tested to see if they could enter the NGL to find Kite, but the pair failed that test. This technically shouldn't matter though since the Ant King was no longer in the NGL, but the country furthest from it, the Republic of East Gorteau, in the Capital city of Peijing in the King's palace.
Morel initially had a problem with Gon just coming for revenge since that kind of thing clouded the senses, but the light in his eyes after seeing baby Kite had been restored, so there wasn't a problem. He could also sense Killua's growth in strength, so there was no need to prevent him from coming either. As for Rayleigh, the newcomer, he'd already earned Morel's approval. His plethora of abilities left no question about his value as an asset on this mission, so if he wanted to take part, there was no reason to refuse.
At least Morel thought that there was no reason.
After introductions, Morel's pompadour-styled student was the first to shout, "No way! I'm not dealing with another brat! Two was already bad enough! What do I look like, a Babysitter?!"
Morel argued, "Hey, this kid is skilled. He has all the information on the fight between that Royal Guard Ant and Kite."
The loud-mouthed Hunter shouted back, "Then make him tell us everything and tell him to get lost! I don't have any time for any more squirts!"
Killua looked at him with a blank stare and stated blandly, "I didn't know you were so busy. And Ray's strong too, you know?"
The one-armed Hunter standing behind Knuckle replied, "You were both trained by a professional for the last month. He was not."
Before Gon could add anything to the argument, Rayleigh stopped him and addressed the two Hunters, "Would you be convinced with a fight?"
Knuckle gritted his teeth and stated, "You want your ass kicked? Fine."
Rayleigh looked over at Morel and said, "Can you take us somewhere we can stretch a bit?"
Morel laughed while Nov adjusted his glasses and gave an evaluating look to Rayleigh. No matter how he saw it, Rayleigh was weaker than Knuckle was. It wouldn't be much of a match.
After heading over to an empty lot outside the city, Knuckle said, "Hey. I'll give you a choice little brat. You wanna fight me, or Shoot?"
Rayleigh gave a taunting smirk and answered back, "I don't feel like choosing. Come at me together. I'll take both of you on at the same time."
Knuckle's eyes almost looked bloodshot. He asked almost as if he could not believe it, "What did you just say?"
Rayleigh pulled out his Nensaber handle and asked, "Did you two need a moment to strategize? I can wait for you."
Knuckle looked back and shouted to his friend, "Shoot! Let's kick this brat's ass!"
Shoot nodded. He actually did not like hurting others, but Rayleigh had crossed a line, and Shoot intended to make him pay.
Knuckle seemed to vanish before reappearing at Ray's side. Ray predicted it and did a half-step to avoid it, but Knuckle's movement was faster than Rayleigh's half-step. This was the speed of a Professional Hunter that had been learning Nen for years. The fist didn't impart its full impact but the graze did yield damage and some of Knuckle's aura was injected into Ray. At that moment, a tubby angel doll-looking thing materialized with the number 100 on it. Rayleigh smiled.
"Open, Babylon."
Rayleigh extended his Nensaber blade just as three floating hands launched themselves at Rayleigh from the side as Knuckle stood at his other side, blocking his escape. With the use of Babylon, he needed one Will to meditate to keep it active, and one Will to control his body. That still left him with seven Wills he could use, now that he had nine total. One would be using Battle Precognition and another Force Valor to enhance his reaction while one more would use Enhance Attribute: Speed to make him move faster and more unpredictably. That still left four more.
With three Wills, Rayleigh used Telekinesis to grab all three of the floating hands and keep them above his own head before he used Force Speed to accelerate toward Shoot. Shoot was a Manipulation type Nen user and his control over those floating hands should have been strong enough to resist Rayleigh's telekinesis, but as long as the hands stayed within range of Babylon and Rayleigh devoted a Will to each one, he could imprison them, countering much of Shoot's strength. With the boost in the Force thanks to Rayleigh stepping on the path of the Teacher and the further amplification of Babylon, those hands were not going anywhere.
Knuckle didn't intend to let Rayleigh attack Shoot so easily and charged forward. His base speed was certainly faster than Rayleigh's due to the difference in size and stride length, but Rayleigh's stacking of Force Valor, Enhance Attribute: Speed, and Force Speed caused Rayleigh to out speed Knuckle and reach Shoot first.
Rayleigh poured his aura into his Nensaber to sharpen it to the max while increasing its rotation speed to the limit. Shoot was still trying to regain control of his flying hands and although he was a very skilled multitasker, he had nothing on Rayleigh. The moment Shoot was within attacking range, Rayleigh ended Force Valor and replaced it with his first Hatsu, Overdrive.
Before Shoot could even move to defend, Rayleigh had stepped behind him and slashed down on his back, avoiding his spine. The muscles in his back were cleanly cut and Shoot's right lung had almost been punctured.
Shoot froze from the shock and Rayleigh turned down the deadly on his Nensaber to change it into a beat stick before smashing it on the back of Shoot's head to knock him out.
Knuckle shouted, "Shoot! You bastard!" He saw Rayleigh strike Shoot's head with a sword, so he likely thought Shoot had been killed.
Morel saw that Shoot's head didn't draw blood and though he fell, he was still alive.
Rayleigh used the moment of Knuckle's anger to charge him. Knuckle engulfed himself in a strong Ken and used a strong Kō with one arm to block Rayleigh's Nensaber and strike with the other arm.
With Shoot out cold, the Wills restraining the three hands were freed up so Rayleigh could use them all to fight Knuckle.
If Rayleigh fought normally against Hunters that were that much stronger than he was, he would lose. He could predict his opponent, out speed his opponent, and attack through the defenses of the opponent by applying more aura to his Nensaber. But the reason he would probably lose was simple. He could not outlast his opponent. A Nen battle between two fighters usually amounted to a resource battle. Rayleigh's Babylon would allow him to use his aura far more efficiently than should be possible, but if the opponent simply had a lot more aura than he did, Rayleigh's tank would run on empty before his opponents did if Rayleigh couldn't end the fight.
"It's time. The interest is piling up." The tubby angel thingy next to Rayleigh had the number change from 100 to 110. Aura was being emitted by Knuckle, directed into the Angel thing, and then directed into Rayleigh. Even if Knuckle didn't touch Rayleigh, this would happen. And if the amount of Knuckle's aura in Ray's body exceeded Rayleigh's aura, he would be forced into a state of Zetsu by Knuckle's aura.
According to what Gon said, the only way to return the aura was to strike Knuckle. But Knuckle was a close combat specialist, so it was more likely that he'd hit you more times than you hit him.
At least, that's how it was for Gon.
Rayleigh once more strengthened his Nensaber to the max power and rotation speed while slashing at Knuckle. The Hunter did not underestimate the power of the blade and stacked all his aura into his arm using Kō to form a powerful defense.
If it was Rayleigh's original Lightsaber, that defense would have caused the plasma blade to merely bounce off. The Nensaber on the other hand sliced through layers of the densely packed aura and sliced against the back of Knuckle's wrists. The arms weren't severed but the wound wasn't shallow.
The 110 on the angel thing changed into 10. Rayleigh's smile brightened. Yes, if he couldn't outlast Knuckle in a fight, he'd use Knuckle's own ability against him. He'd use Knuckle's aura to power his Nensaber and damage him, one slice at a time.
With Rayleigh's Battle Precognition and Force Valor, Knuckle was unable to land a clean Hit on Rayleigh after that first one which had been allowed. The longer the fight went on, the more Knuckle was getting annoyed.
Morel, Nov, Gon, and Killua watched from the side. Each had a different question, but most had the same thought. 'I really don't want to fight him.'
It wasn't the strategy that made Rayleigh annoying to fight. It was how he used Force Valor. Traditional usage of Force Valor cannot stack with muscle usage, so Rayleigh's application of Force Valor got around this by applying movement speed from the side while he moved forward to achieve a diagonal velocity faster than his forward velocity. Rayleigh had adjusted his fighting style with Biscuit to incorporate this into his fight which made it difficult to predict his attacks.
If you saw him running at your left, he'd approach straight on. If you saw him attack from the front, the actual attack came from the side. If you dodged his attack, it still hit you because you misjudged the direction. Rayleigh changed how much the Force affected his strikes and from which direction it affected randomly throughout the fight. The speed he swung his shining blue Nensaber blade combined with the misreading of the direction created false afterimages of what you expected him to do while he actually did something else.
And then add to that Rayleigh's ability to use Telekinesis to hold or push at random times. Due to the difference in skill, a stronger opponent could resist the effect, but that was only if Rayleigh didn't stack multiple Wills on top of each other.
At least from a distance, you could somewhat see what was happening. Up close and personal would be an entirely different matter if he got too close to allow you full access to your peripheral vision.
There were multiple instances where Rayleigh could have heavily wounded him, but he had no intention of ending the fight so easily. Where else could he possibly find a target practice dummy that recharged you as you damaged it?
Knuckle quickly realized his dilemma but was unable to call off the match. The reason Rayleigh called for Shoot and Knuckle to fight him was that he wanted to antagonize Knuckle to the point that Knuckle would be unable to give up until he completely ran out of steam.
"Stop moving around you brat and let me punch your face in!" Knuckle's speed increased as he altered his Kō but Rayleigh's Battle Precognition saw every move coming and he could apply stacks of Enhance Attribute: Speed or Force Valor to dodge them. Unlike Nen, his Force abilities were basically limitless as long as his Willpower did not falter. And why would he get bored of fighting someone nice enough to act as his punching bag/recharging station?
Morel had already long wrapped up Shoot's wounds and the latter had woken up, but since he was taken out, he could not rejoin the battle.
Knuckle was almost out of breath by this point. Rayleigh had kept at close range and forced him to attack or defend half a dozen times every few seconds without letting up in the slightest. Rayleigh's cardiovascular system was fine with such long durations of intense training. He knew enough tricks with the Force to ensure he could fight for long periods without difficulty. Shoot's mastery over Aura gave him similar talents, but hours into the fight, he was the one running out of aura, and the number on the little Angel never climbed higher than 500.
Eventually, Knuckle's irritation gave way and he stopped defending. "Just finish it."
Rayleigh asked, "Can't you remove this on your own?" Knuckle was asking Rayleigh to hit him hard enough to pay all the debt from the little angel.
Knuckle shook his head, "No. I can't turn it off once it's activated."
"It's time. The interest is piling up." The number changed from 220 to 242.
Rayleigh circulated the Force within his body, forcing the foreign aura out of his body. Removing a foreign aura from his own body was far easier than removing it from someone else's. This caused the number on the chubby angel to start dropping until it reached zero and it broke apart.
Knuckle's jaw dropped. He had never seen anyone do something like that before, but it was obvious that Rayleigh could have done so at any time."
Knuckle's hands move to his hair in agitation as if to rip it out, but stopped once it felt his styled pompadour. He obviously would never want to harm his hair, so had immediately stopped this subconscious action.
Rayleigh also felt a lot better. Throughout the fight, Rayleigh discovered that using someone else's aura had a lot of downsides. He'd have to purify his body and Kyber crystal to prevent unwanted side effects. It wouldn't be an issue, but if he continued using the aura of others, it would become one later.
After regaining some composure, Knuckle shouted, "How the hell did you do all that and what the hell are you?! You feel like an Enhancer with the way you raised your speed, but you transmuted your aura into a powerful sword aura, and you manipulated Shoot's hands and froze me up loads of times! There is no way you have enough aura for all that! Even the aura you used for that sword was way too efficient! That doesn't make any sense!"
Since Knuckle's Nen ability counted off aura using numerical values, he had a good sense of aura quantity, aura quality, and the aura cost of skills. According to what Knuckle calculated, the equation, two plus two equals fish, made more sense than Rayleigh did.
Rayleigh ignored Knuckle's complaints and grabbed the loudmouth's arm before using Dark Transfer to inject the Force into the wounds Rayleigh caused to fix them all, leaving Knuckle perfectly healthy. Knuckle was once more rendered speechless as the various cuts all over his body were healed up without a single scratch or scar.
Seeing this, no one stopped Rayleigh from walking over to Shoot and placing a hand on his back to heal the wound he gave him earlier. Morel had already applied an excellent first-aid, but it cost nothing for Rayleigh to heal it back so he figured he might as well.
Only after the wound was healed did Rayleigh retract his Nensaber and turned to Knuckle. "So, still think I should leave?"
Knuckle grumbled. It would take a while for him to get over being treated like a punching bag.
Rayleigh took the time to explain all the details about Chimera Ants that he knew of. It wasn't just the cat-girl Royal Guard Chimera Ant. She had used Kite to fight the soldiers, and many of the Squad Leaders had fought puppet Kite, meaning Rayleigh had information on them as well.
The information was passed up the chain and Morel and Nov spent the next few weeks searching for any Chimera Ants that were running around that had not joined the King while Rayleigh, Gon, and Killua trained as hard as they could. Rayleigh even helped Killua develop a Hatsu that was similar to Overdrive while Gon worked on speeding up the accumulation of his aura to use Rock.
The group took a train across the country to the Republic of East Gorteau where they waited for a call from Netero at a city on the country's border.
Netero had told Morel that if he didn't call him by today, to assume that he was dead, so it was somewhat tense as they watched the news on the TV.
Unsurprisingly, the news did not help them relax. According to the reporters, the Big Leader of the Republic of East Gorteau made an announcement to call all citizens to come to the capital city in ten days for a festival. The fact that it was highly suspected that this big boss was being controlled made the announcement very unsettling.
The Chimera Ant that was babysitting Baby Kite had guessed what would happen and informed Morel of that guess. He said that the Royal Guard figured out how to awaken Nen in others through the use of a strong nen attack. The problem was that for weak humans, only about 1% would awaken Nen using this means. That 1% would then, somehow, be converted into a Chimera Ant. As for the remaining 99%. They would be killed.
Nov and Morel planned to stop the citizens from successfully arriving at the capital to stop the pointless murders. It would be difficult as the Big Boss made all transport from anywhere in East Gorteau to the capital completely free. This meant even poor farmers could board a train or bus to the capital to await their 99% chance of death.
Eventually, Netero did contact them to confirm he was alive and to give them a plan. It was an assassination.
On the night before the so-called festival, at midnight nine nights from now, they were all to gather around the capital and find some way to draw the royal guards out. With all three guards out, Netero would take part in a strike team to kill the King.
Said instructions were sent via text message.
Rayleigh snatched the phone from Morel and texted back, [Is that necessary? If you walk into the Palace using the front door and challenge the King, you think he'll refuse or let the guards get in his way?]
The president quickly replied back, [That's Plan G. We need to try Plans A through E before that, little brat.]
Even though Rayleigh was using Morel's phone, somehow Netero knew it was him replying back.
Morel grabbed the phone back and looked over what was texted before rolling his eyes.
Rayleigh said, "We'll take on cat-girl."
Morel asked, "You sure? She's the strongest from what we hear."
Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah, but I'm completely familiar with her fighting style. If I use everything I can, I should be able to hold her in place for a moment so that Gon can deliver his fist. That should wound her enough for us to finish her off if we three work together."
Killua nodded, "I figured out a way to move even faster than Ray can, so I'll be fine."
Gon nodded with confidence, "Then if Killua can distract her until I charge my Rock, and Rayleigh can hold her, I'm confident I can kill her or at least wound her."
Rayleigh added, "Actually, that same move I use to heal? I can use that to kill too if I can touch the person for a moment."
Nov asked, "Really? How does that work?"
Rayleigh answered, "When I heal, I basically filled in cracks that represent wounds. But I can also cause those cracks to expand and basically destroy anything. I used the same trick to break that little devil thing on Gon."
Morel nodded, "So that's how you did it. Fine. You three are in charge of that cat girl. Nov and I will handle the Butterfly guy. And Knuckle and Shoot will take care of the morphing guy."
Details about all three of the Royal Guards had been given to the group and several strategies had been made for each.
With that, the three groups separated so they could make their way into the deepest regions of East Gorteau without drawing any attention.
Unsurprisingly, the trio of Gon, Killua, and Rayleigh met a problem on their first night. They found a village. It was a village that was as far from the capital city as could be possible. And it was completely empty. No, not empty. The side of the village was filled with wild dogs eating the corpses of the villagers.
It didn't take much for the trio to figure out what was happening. The Republic of East Gorteau was not going to wait for the citizens to assemble in the capital and perform the 99% death selection process there ten days from now. No, the selection process had already begun. Starting from the villages furthest from the capital, the military had been tasked with performing Nen awakening on every villager in every town. Those who awakened their aura were taken to the capital. The rest were killed.
The plan to stop the festival ten days from now had become pointless. Every day they waited, about 10% of the population of this country would die. They needed to do something.
*Author's Note*
Although I will be going in the direction of Canon, several events took place during this arc offscreen that were only mentioned in passing. I'll be including those and throwing in some interesting stuff so readers won't just be able to predict the contents of the next chapters.