My name is Lucas and I am a genius kid. I never knew my mom but I was told that she died giving birth to me in the hospital. I didn't get to know my dad either since he passed away in a car accident, speeding to the hospital, trying to be there when I was born. Since they are both dead, I've been living in an orphanage in Salisbury, New York, for as long as I can remember. It's not so bad. Life has its ups and downs, but I've learned to manage. By the time I was four, I was used to it.
Also, I'm seven years old in eleventh grade. Yeah, high school. Most kids the age of seven are just trying to figure themselves out. But me? I'm different. People call me a genius, a "once in a lifetime" kind of kid. I have an eidetic memory, so anything I see or read stays with me, stuck in my mind like it's carved there forever. My life's pretty simple just, wake up, eat, go to school, "learn something", come home, watch TV, eat again, and sleep.
There's only one problem with being a genius in high school. Some bullies want me to do their work for them in class. They are all Neanderthals who only want to get into the best tier of their respective sports. It's fine though I want to go to Oxford and they have no chance of following me there.
Currently, I'm walking to school, like I always do. The school's only a few blocks away from the orphanage so It's no big deal. The snow's falling thick, the way it does in December. The wind cuts through me, sharp and biting, so I pull my coat tighter around me. Almost there. Just a little further. But then, A snowplow comes rushing down the street, too fast for these icy conditions.
I don't have time to react before it buries me. A wall of snow smashes into me at least six feet of it. My lungs are burning with a need for air, but there's nothing but snow, suffocating and cold. There's a sharp pain in my chest like something's been ripped open until finally, the world goes black.
I'm not dead. At least… not quite. I can open my eyes but everything's blurry, and Strange. A blurry figure is in front of my eyes. It feels like there's a presence, looming over me as I feel whatever it is start to cradle me like a baby. I try to focus through the fog of confusion, the haze of pain. There is a man who is cradling me while watching me with an unsettling grin. His hair's long and tied back, his face covered in a thick beard. His skin is marked with an X-shaped scar running across his forehead and cheeks. He's dressed in a green robe, the kind you would see in old books, with a red belt wrapped around his waist.
Something about him feels familiar, though I can't quite place why. I reach for the memory, but it slips away before I can grasp it.
He leans closer, his grin widening as he looks down at me.
"Well, well. Look who's finally awake."
His voice isn't comforting, but there's something in the way he speaks like he's amused by my confusion, like this moment is exactly what he expected.
I can't speak. Can't even think straight. My body is too weak and too small, and my senses are overwhelmed. I can barely process what's happening, but somehow I feel something. Something is tingling and shifting inside me.
A strange sensation floods me that feels like when my leg falls asleep but it's my whole body. There is a feeling of energy, raw and powerful, crackling through the air. The air is thick, charged with something beyond understanding. And then I feel it, inside me, an unfamiliar presence, an aura, rising, like I've become aware of something I never knew was there. It's not just around me. It's part of me. My body instinctively reacts to it, rising in response, pulling at the energy, trying to match its power.
The man's grin deepens. He watches me with a knowing look like he's waiting for something to click. Suddenly, a wave of heat rushes through me. It's sharp, like a jolt of electricity but not painful. The tingling feeling presides and now it feels like something inside me is shifting. I can feel it now, the power swirling, the connections forming.
And then, as if I'm coming to some kind of understanding, he speaks again, his voice like a whisper that cuts through the thick, charged air.
"Hahaha. Soon, the world will know the name Lucas Netero. But for now, they'll call you the 10th prince of the Kakin Empire. Lucas Hui Guo Rou."
The words don't quite make sense, like a riddle I can't solve, but they linger in the air, wrapping around my mind, leaving an echo I can't shake.
And then there's another presence. A woman steps forward, standing just out of reach but still close enough that I can sense her. She's tall, her blonde hair short and sharp, her features regal. She looks at me with a gaze that's somehow both distant and intensely focused as if she can see right through me. Her clothes are royal, fitting someone of high status.
I try to focus on her, to understand who she is, but it doesn't come to me. I feel like there's a memory slipping just out of reach, something too big to hold onto in my current state.
And then, it hits me.
This is no dream. No afterlife. I'm in Hunter x Hunter.
The woman's name… Unma Hui Guo Rou. The first queen of the Kakin Empire. Is she my new mother? Wait Beyond Netero. The man standing over me is he my father?
The realization sinks in, heavy and suffocating. Panic surges within me, but I can't even fully process it. How is this possible? How can I be here, in this world, as... this? A newborn. Vulnerable, small, with no idea how to survive.
But one thing's clear I need to get out. I need to escape before I get caught up in whatever tangled mess awaits me here.
But for now, I'm too small. Too weak. I don't know how to get away.
The woman stares down at me. Her eyes are sharp, and calculating, but she doesn't move.
The man Beyond looks down at me, his expression unreadable.
And then, with a final chuckle, and a big grin he says, "No matter what path you follow you will end up shaking the world someday soon."