Chapter 1

Time has passed, specifically one year. I am currently a year old. In that time I have just barely managed to achieve control over my movements to the point of walking and crying on command. Bowel movements are still outside of my purview but one day, one day.

On another note, my parents think I'm a genius. I think my mom was a little concerned about me for the first few months of my life because she thought that my cursing of god (endless screaming whenever I was awake) was her fault. But now that I can obviously recognize words and make strange approximations of sentence fragments I have undoubtedly become a genius one-year-old. My mother tells me that all the time and my father gives me strange looks whenever he sees me try to throw out that cross grandma gave him. But you know what, life isn't perfect, it can't be.

The ultimate example of that is the fact that I haven't heard about the Hunter Association until this year of my life. What do I mean by that? Well, I was just minding my own business in my playpen at my mother's work (good on this world for conscientious workplaces, eh?) when I overheard one of the aunties talk about their son who would be trying to go through the hunter's exam.

Now, that didn't really register for a moment because I wasn't really expecting it, but then I heard myself think that statement through again, and again. Then a flood of memories and childhood, not this one, rushed through me. It almost made me cry.

I will admit to reorganizing my understanding of the world. I thought this would be a fairly normal vanilla reincarnation, mostly because of the lack of goblins, people swinging swords and speaking Japanese negated the isekai theory.

The first thing I did after the metaphysical boot to the face was get myself sorted. I kind of remember the HunterxHunter storyline. I mean, superpowered kids go around and fight bad dudes with life-force, not exactly winning creativity awards. I was concerned with my lack of knowledge of specific details, however. What was the timeline of the original show for instance, how does one go about declaring their intent to be a hunter, how do I life?

All complicated things I assure you. Some of that was answered for me. I was taken home by my mother that evening, dad gave me the stink-eye during dinner and was still wearing the cross grandma gave him. When mom was cleaning up and dad went to the living room, she set me down on the counter, don't do this in real life people-who-plan-to-have-kids-for-longer-than-you-can-say-humpty-dumpty, and started talking to me.

"I just know you're going to be the smartest student ever. That old hag Julia thinks you can't be smarter than her son but you'll kil- blow their expectations out of the water for mommy, won't you?~"

Oi, this son-con, I heard something unexpectedly dangerous just now, don't go changing your character stereotype a year into this relationship.

Ignoring the rest of the useless chatter I was able to piece out that I would be sent to standardized schooling (Ah, the sign of a civilized world) when I was 4. That would continue, with a focus on core knowledge, until the age of 10 when a preliminary specialization would be chosen with the input of the student and his teachers. The specialization can be anything somebody can study. There is a surprising amount of flexibility in the educational system in this country. Unfortunately, my mother fully devolved into useless chatter by the time that information got out so I settled down on the counter waiting for her to finish.