Patients Are Also People!

I woke up to find myself wrapped up like a dumpling in giant palm leaves. My body felt numb and the surroundings were permeated with a bitter herbal smell.

Taking a look around, I realized that I was lying on a cot of beast furs, back in the safety of our cavern complex.

Sighing with relief, I heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

"You're finally awake, " Magog said as he loomed over my paralyzed body.

I habitually tried to curse at this arsehole but couldn't even open my mouth. Seeing that my head was covered just as tightly as the rest of my body, I decided to convey all my misgivings through my gaze.

The bigger man simply laughed at my hateful stare.

"It's best that you don't move around for a while as the Initiation left your body in a wreck, " he said. "On a more positive note, it was a success and you can begin mastering to wield your aura as soon as you recover."

Seeing my inquiring gaze, he explained further.

"It was actually quite troublesome to lure in that brainless vegetable but it was worth the effort, " he said. "With the influx of it's aura, you managed to open your Aura Nodes."

Initiation, Aura, Aura Nodes? The fuck are those supposed to be? His explanation left me with even more questions.

Disregarding the unfamiliar terms, the hell did he mean by "lure in that brainless vegetable"?!

"Mhhm!" I tried cursing again as the implication of that particular sentence finally settled in.

Not only did this parent of the year leave me alone in the middle of a hostile environment but he also went through the trouble of finding more monsters to go after me!

"Don't give me that look, " he said. "That single moment of danger saved you months worth of time wasted on nothing but meditation."

That did nothing to appease my anger. If external aura was all it took to speed up the process, why didn't he just Initiate me himself?

"Were there other ways to go about it?" he asked as if reading my mind.

"Most definitely, " he answered his own question. "But if you couldn't survive this little bit of hostile aura than that just means that you're not worth the effort of raising you."

I could only grit my teeth. Magog would always laugh off my little bouts of defiance and occasional cursing antics but the man never tolerated any form of failure.

"Now rest and remember the exercise I taught you to contain your leaking life energy, " he said. "I have suppressed it for now but if you don't learn to keep it in check by the time you completely recover..."

Leaving the threat unsaid, he turned around and left me alone with my thoughts.

============

The next few days reminded me of my time as a newborn.

I spent most of my time lying on a pile of beast furs, lost in the deepest recesses of my mind.

Occasionally, Magog would drop by to feed me and change my bandages, applying some herbal paste all over my skin.

During the process, he would teach me, though this time not about the language.

Instead, he taught me about Aura.

He explained to me that Aura is the life energy produced by all living bodies and it could be wielded to greatly empower oneself.

In normal conditions, a person's Aura constantly leaks out in minuscule amounts through "Aura Nodes" located throughout the person's body.

Learning to control those "Aura Nodes" and opening them to increase the flow of life energy is the first step in mastering to utilize one's Aura.

This is usually achieved through a slow and gradual process of meditation that I got to skip due to my run in with that bloodthirsty flower. It used it's Aura to paralyze my body and the pressure of it's life energy forced my "Aura Nodes" to open up.

This kind of shortcut comes with a certain amount of risk. If one does not contain the flow of aura when his "Aura Nodes" are fully opened, He will quickly become exhausted and eventually lose consciousness. As a bonus, forcefully opening "Aura Nodes" might result in an injury, permanent disability or even death.

Fortunately, I had the talent for it and managed to avoid any lasting sequelae.

Though if I don't practice the mental exercise that Magog taught me, I'm running the risk of failing to control my aura once he lifts his surpressive barrier.

All this esoteric shit sounded somehow familiar but I couldn't quite put my finger on where have I heard it before.

=========

After about a week of lying around, I was starting to show signs of recovery and my body felt itchy for action.

Although this period was a welcome reprieve from the usual hellish training but after years of conditioning, my body just doesn't feel right when I casually lie around.

Taking advantage of Magog's absence, I decided to relieve some boredom by exploring our cavern complex.

Hobbling down the dark corridors, I passed many carved out rooms, each serving their own purpose.

Some of them I've already seen when I was carried around by Magog, while others were completely unfamiliar. Though this time I've noticed a little detail that I've missed before.

All the walls were engraved with abstract paintings. As if a diary, they told the tale of Magog's many misadventures as he was stuck on this godforsaken island.

At some point, the illustrations gave way to childlike scribbling. The different sized letters were awkwardly chiseled on the walls, forming dispersed words of a foreign language.

Going further through the dusky tunnels, the letters started to become more uniform and eventually turned into tightly packed sentences of neat handwriting.

It all felt like watching a child growing up. At first he could only express himself through vague drawings. Later he learned to scrawl some indecipherable words and with enough practice turn them into proper sentences.

Conversely, it could also be a civilized man's descent into madness and savagery.

Being stranded in this cursed place left Magog a broken man and I couldn't help but panic at the thought that the same fate awaits me.

Shaking my head, I pictured a safe cavern room. While practicing to contain my aura, I found visualizing that place also helps to calm my mind.

When I felt the rising anxiety subside, I proceed with my exploration.

After passing a few more bends and turns, I chanced upon a strangely familiar empty room. This one caught my attention as it's walls were completely bereft of any words or paintings.

Taking a careful look around, I noticed a human skeleton in a rotten safari short, lying abandoned in a dark corner.

The thought that it could very well be the remains of my new mother should have hit me like a brick but somehow, I found it hard to care.

Even in my previous life, I was always different from others, remaining unmoved and cold by what would upset a normal person.

'Your child is sick, ' a shrink once told my parents. 'I suspect he has an antisocial personality disorder.'

The quack was lying as I wasn't sick. I was free.

Free from the the shackles of remorse, morality and compassion.

My particular condition allowed me to see them for what they really are - a make-believe concept created to collar individuals and convert them into a herd.

Because of that, I didn't treat others around me as people but only as targets and opportunities. They didn't deserve any better.

They were nothing more than sheep and sheep require a shepherd.

Shaking away the stray thoughts, I callously stepped over my mother's remains and found a passage close to her body.

It wasn't long and after only about ten meters, I found myself in another room.

It was chock full of different junk that had me in over the moon!

Rotten suitcases, a carcass of a broken wooden boat, a plane's engine and many similar items were carelessly sprawled across the floor. They served as a proof that I wasn't stuck at some prehistoric age.

Somewhere beyond the seemingly endless waters, the wonders of civilization awaited me! Oh, how I've missed sleeping in a comfy bed, dining in a luxurious restaurant and relieving myself into a flushing toilet.

In my excitement, I decided to rummage through the items in a bid to find anything useful. Unfortunately, I only found trash that was corroded by time and seawater.

That was until I found a relatively well preserved wooden chest straight out of some second rate pirate movie.

Could it be treasure!?

Driven by that thought, I rushed to open it but found that it was tightly locked. Giving it a slight, I heard items rolling around inside.

Why would Magog leave a locked chest in this dumpster? Normally, a person would pry it open to see what's inside before discarding it in a pile of useless trash.

That could only mean that he was the one that locked it. Now what could be important enough to deserve being locked but also so irrelevant that it was disposed of with the rest of the garbage?

Eager to find out, I applied enough strength to throw the lid off it's hinges. Ignoring the loud sound produced by the lid as it smashed into the wall behind the chest, I proceed to sift through the items inside.

At first, I found a pile of modern clothes that would be a perfect fit for a giant like Magog. Beneath them was an instant camera and a small stack of pictures portraying a group of people standing before an immense ship.

Magog's 2.5m form stuck out like a sore thumb on the group foto, though I barely recognized the man. He was dressed in a neat linen shirt and brown trousers. His hair and beard were properly trimmed, with a well-meaning foolish smile plastered on his face.

I had a hard time connecting the image of this naive giant to the cold and bloodthirsty mad beast that was my father today.

"Whatever, " I said as I carelessly threw the fotos to the side and continued searching through the chest.

Next, I found a swiss knife, a compass a closed bottle of alcohol and other useful little trinkets but what really caught my attention hid at the very bottom of the chest.

It looked similar to a red credit card. On the front, three X's were drawn on top of a purple triangle. On the back, there was a string of numbers, surprisingly written in Western Arabic numerals, and a magnetic strip.

I knew exactly what this thing was.

Although Magog's explanations about aura did ring a bell but I couldn't quite remember where have I heard that stuff.

Though now, holding a 3-star Hunter License in my hands, I finally realized the depth of the rabbit hole that I somehow wound up in.

I was never really a fan of anime but one day I somehow stumbled upon a comic-con. Seeing all those cosplayer chicks strutting around half-naked in weird costumes motivated me to study the subject at length.

Purely for educational purposes, I watched through a few of the more popular series and Hunter x Hunter just so happens to be one of them.

"Shit! Of all places, I transmigrated into a fucking Shounen!" I couldn't help but curse at this surreal situation.

I didn't know how I wounded up here. Be it through the foolery of some bored god or I was simply spirited away because a space whale farted on the other side of the galaxy. Right now, I only wanted to strangle whoever was responsible for this crap!

"Oho, " a familiar voice sounded from behind me. "Looks like you've finally completely recovered"

Completely discarding all thoughts of revenge on some unknown cosmic entity, I fearfully turned around. Something in Magog's tone told me that I was well and truly fucked.