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5 August 1996
After ducking and dodging a punch to my face, I move quickly forward and throw two quick punches to the stomach and liver of the man in front of me. My opponent, whose name I don't bother to remember, spasms in pain for a moment and lets his guard down, and I finish my combo with a full-power uppercut to the jaw. My unconscious opponent collapses to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
'Well ladies and gentlemen, the Mystery Champion Kai is once again victorious, knocking out his opponent in under ten seconds. Give it up for our champion.'
With the announcer's announcement, the cheers from outside the arena grew louder, as if it were possible.
I jumped around the arena as if I was having fun. When I left the arena and entered the dark corridor leading to the fighters' rest room, my joy quickly faded.
I didn't enjoy these fights anymore. Two years ago I had started participating in underground fights to improve myself. At first it was fun. The feeling of the blood flowing in my veins, the excitement of each punch and kick, the rapid beating of my heart, unfortunately it was extremely short-lived. Within a month I was one of the best fighters in this illegal fight club. By the end of the second month I was undefeated. By the end of the third month no one could take more than one or two blows from me, so the fights were no longer any fun, it was just a way to make easy money. When I was bored and low on cash, I could come in and throw a few punches and make a good amount of money.
I was in the break room packing up my stuff when I felt someone approaching me. I knew who it was before I even turned round.
'Come on, Kai, can you make the fights a little longer? It's over so fast people don't even bet anymore. That means you're making less money. You know that, right?'
I turned round with a small smile, although it couldn't be seen through the mask I was wearing. Nee did you think I was going to show my face in an illegal fighting arena.
The person who called me was Robert, the manager of this arena.
'Well, you won't have that problem anymore. I'll be leaving Yorknew City soon.'
Robert was now literally stung. He even dropped the money bag in his hand. 'Why don't you make good money here. You don't have to take any risks.'
That's the whole point. There was no more risk. No fun, and most importantly, no progress.
'I know, that's the problem, it's so easy. I came here to improve myself in the first place. Now it doesn't work at all, it's just a way to make easy money, nothing more. I'm going to the heavens arena.'
Robert looked like he wanted to protest for a moment, but then he gave up and shrugged his shoulders.
'I suppose it was inevitable. After all, it's the goal of every good fighter. When are you going?'
'I'll probably be in town for a few months, maybe for a fight or two, but no promises.'
Scratching the back of his head, he handed me the bag in his hand. 'Here's your money, 150.000 Jenny.'
After giving the money and turning his back, he left.
I was still a little nervous as I packed my things and left. I knew Robert wouldn't cause any trouble. As he said, I wasn't making him much money anymore. Still, he worked for the mafia and the mafia wasn't a group known for being reasonable.
After confirming, as usual, that no one was after me, I went into an alley and quickly took off my mask. It wasn't anything too fancy. It was more like a leather balaclava. It covered everything except my eyes. Then I changed into the new clothes I had hidden in the alley and changed the money bag. After removing the lenses that hid my red eyes, I headed towards the orphanage.
15 minutes later I arrived at the orphanage on the outskirts of Yorknew city. It was already past midnight. Naturally, the lights were off. Correction, all the lights were off except for one room. Aunt Lily, who was the director and head carer of the orphanage at the same time, still had her light on.
Aunt Lily was a stern, disciplined woman in her 40s who was also full of love for the children in her orphanage. Understandably, when she found out that I had started participating in underground fights two years ago, she didn't take it very well. When she realised that she couldn't dissuade me with punishments and other things, she started to wait for me on the nights I went to fight. I jumped over the garden wall with a single movement and went inside. When I looked around, I couldn't help smiling. This used to be a rundown orphanage that barely made a living. Now the walls were renovated and painted, and even more children were sheltering inside than before. I couldn't help feeling a sense of accomplishment. I had invested the money I had been earning for two years, built a gym just for me and organised my room a bit.
Aunt Lily didn't want to accept my money at first, but eventually I managed to convince her that I couldn't use the money without laundering it, and that the orphanage was almost closed for lack of money. The real reason was that the orphanage was almost closed for lack of money, and the reality of what could happen to unprotected children in a city like Yorknew, where the mafia was strong, scared her a lot.
When I arrived at Aunt Lily's room, the door opened without me knocking.
'You came early today.'
I replied with a big smile, 'There was only one fight. It was short.'
I didn't get an answer except a harsh hhh.
'Come on, don't be like that, Aunt Lily, it's not even that dangerous anymore.'
'You're not gonna talk to me in that tone, young man. Those places are always dangerous.'
Even though he couldn't talk me out of fighting, he still had a hard time accepting it. I quietly put the money on his desk and started to check on me. She made it a habit to check me every time to see if I was hurt. Considering that the first few times I'd come back with a fair number of bruises and cuts, she might have been right to be worried.
'I'm fine, Aunt Lily. That man couldn't even land a single punch on me.'
Frowning, she looked at me one last time and then continued. 'Don't tell me what to do, young man. If you're all right, go to your room and sleep.'
I went back to my room with a small smile on my face. The first thing I did was to take a shower. After I got out of the shower, I started to examine myself in the mirror. This face standing in front of me was both familiar and foreign at the same time. 13 years ago I was reborn in this world. A new body, a new life.
My past life was a bit eventful. I was on my way to physics class at university when suddenly everything turned white and before I knew it, I was dead.
I then found myself in the presence of a divine being, who was basically going to reincarnate me to cleanse me of the bad karma that I had died because of a mistake he had made. Apparently I couldn't return to my old world because of stupid laws. Unfortunately, he couldn't give me a great gift either. Only reincarnation with one's physical ability and memories. The worst part was that I couldn't choose the world I would be reincarnated in and the person whose abilities and memories I would receive. So I found myself as a baby in front of an orphanage in the HunterxHunter world with Senju Tobirama's ability and memories. What I didn't expect was that I received Tobirama's entire body, not just his ability. So the face I saw in the mirror right now belonged to a young Senju Tobirama.
It was a handsome face with blond hair that had turned silver since I entered puberty, red eyes, and sharp features that still had some baby fat.
After rinsing and trying to style my hair, I went to my room. I underline work because no matter what I did, they seemed to like to stay messy.
I took a deep breath and started meditating on my bed. I had been trying to open my Nen for about a month. Even though I had the ability and memories of Tobirama, there were a few reasons why it took so long. Firstly, although chakra and nen look similar, they are quite different from each other. Secondly, I had minimal knowledge about nen. All the information I had was either from the anime I watched in my previous life. Or from the website of the shingen-ryu school on the internet, of course the website did not directly mention nen. There were only some meditation methods. When I remembered that wing made Gon and killua train in this way in the anime, I started to study these meditation techniques.
For two days I felt like I had reached that critical threshold. I just needed to push a little more and I would make it. But it wasn't happening and the feeling was maddening. It felt like I was constantly itching some part of my body, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't scratch it.
Then it all happened at once. One moment that huge barrier was there and the next moment it was gone. My aura started to overflow from my body like a flood. For a second I was so surprised that I couldn't even react, then I pulled myself together and quickly tried to control my aura. It was surprisingly easy. My aura easily stopped separating from my body and formed a fluid membrane around it. It was as if my body was covered with a warm sticky liquid.
I immediately stood up and started to do a victory dance. I had finally started my Nen journey. It had taken 13 fucking years, but I had made it.
After taking a deep breath, I again assumed the meditation position and tried to practice the zetsu. Surprisingly, this was also very easy. Almost effortlessly, I pulled my aura into my body and closed my aura nodes and entered the zetsu form.
After staying in that form for a while, I decided to take a break for today. I still wanted to try Ren, but at the last moment I remembered that the use of Ren creates a feeling of pressure so great that even normal people can feel it, and I didn't want to wake everyone in the orphanage in the middle of the night, so I gave up.