chapter 12-Hisoka teaching

Once all contestants were on the boat, it set sail.

A woman with short ginger hair, wearing a red pencil skirt and brown top with the hunter's logo on started to speak "I'd like to commend all of you on your work in the exam's third phase. I'll be your guide, it's nice to meet you, you can call me Cara. It will take 2 hours for this boat to reach its destination, Zevil island. All 24 applicants who made it this far are granted an open invitation to participate in next year's exam no matter what, so even if you don't pass this year we'll hope you try again. So never say die right? Anybody?…wow that went over well"

Adam could feel the tension in the atmosphere, everyone weary of who is going to hunt them. People were taking off their badges so the others couldn't see them and would find it harder to take them.

Even Adam was wary of who was going to be the one hunting him, 'If it's Hisoka he might let me go to develop more knowing his 'different' personality, but if it's Illumi then I might have some trouble. Let's just hope they don't remember my badge number and never find me. In the meantime, I should train in zetsu'

Adam sat comfortably on the ship deck and felt his nen.

'Just imagine it slowly coming into my body, nothing leaking out all contained within me. Imagine myself a container of my nen, with it being trapped inside while I try to pull it inside of me'

Slowly Adam's aura receded inside of him and his aura nodes began to close due to the amount of effort trying to force the nen in. As more of it went inside of him Adam found it more difficult to retrieve the last remnants of his aura and although a large amount of it was inside him, Adam could still feel a few wisps of his aura still lingering outside of himself.

'I've almost suppressed most of my aura on the first try. It seems my talent might be near Gon and Killua's level but I'll still need some more time to perfect my technique. The basics of nen are important after all since I will need a strong foundation for my nen ability when I come to creating it. I should probably find a chance to find my nen type on the island.'

Adam then shifted part of his attention to the other people around him while he still kept zetsu up.

'Let's try to sense the aura of the people around me since I am no longer surrounded by my own aura and am more sensitive to other auras'

Adam then closed his eyes and first started to feel for something similar in nature to what his own aura felt like and soon saw results. He could vaguely make out the aura of others surrounding him.

Adam, feeling more intrigued by the auras of others, wanted to try to feel how big Hisoka's is.

'I hope he doesn't take offence and just laughs it off, I know he won't kill me now since he saved me and probably wants to fight me when I'm stronger so he'll let me develop'

Adam tried to sense for Hisoka but couldn't find him, then opened his eyes and looked around to find where Hisoka was sat but still couldn't find him.

Adam then felt a slight chill down his back and started to sweat, then he slowly turned around to see Hisoka standing behind him with a smile on his face.

"To better perform zetsu don't be so forceful, imagine it like water going down a waterfall, let it flow naturally inside of yourself"

Following Hisoka's advice and not forcing it in so much, Adam imagined his aura like water flowing around him then falling inside his body leaving non-left.

Adam's presence immediately lessened and people not directly looking at him didn't know he was there at all.

This didn't fall out of Killua's attention though.

Killua was sitting there talking to gon when he noticed Hisoka standing behind Adam talking. Knowing something was different about the two and definitely dangerous like his family he decided to keep them in the corner of his eye.

Then he felt Adam's presence lessen and it immediately alerted him, but he didn't express any change in his emotions and continued talking to Gon.

After 2 hours passed and the ship reached the island Adam was more capable of hiding his presence and feeling the aura of those around him thanks to Hisoka guiding him on zetsu the whole time, as well as giving him some tips on how to perform ren, which Adam had some minor success in from the limited amount of time and Hisoka's deep knowledge on nen.

Hisoka explained ren as "(Ren; "Refine"/"Enhance") focuses on outputting a larger amount of aura than Ten, projecting it outwards explosively. This amplifies the user's physical strength and durability and provides a large pool of aura for any advanced techniques or individual skills they decide to use, albeit at the cost of expending said aura. One can train their Ren to extend its duration and increase the amount of aura at their disposal. It is said it takes one month to prolong one's Ren outside of combat by 10 minutes. If Ten is considered purely defensive, Ren can be regarded as its offensive counterpart, although it also grants the user vastly enhanced defensive abilities. With the right timing, Ten can be used to contain the aura produced with Ren."

When Adam asked Hisoka why he was helping him, Hisoka just replied with a slight laugh and said something about seeds needing sunlight. Adam, knowing that Hisoka likes to raise talents to fight, understood that he wanted to help Adam get stronger faster.

The ship's platform then extended to the island and the lady from before started to speak "Thanks for being patient everyone, we've arrived at Zevil island. Okay then you will be disembarking in the order you completed the third phase from the shortest to the longest, you will go ashore one at a time with 2-minute intervals separating each of the applicants alright? You'll be on the island exactly one week, that means you only have 7 days to collect your 6 points and then return to this location. First applicants get ready to embark now"

Hisoka then left Adam's side and walked off the boat into the forest ahead.

'I finished near the last of the contests from the third phase so I am at risk of being followed if they know my badge number by whoever aiming for my badge but hopefully they'll slip up or I'll be able to sense their aura if they get close enough when I'm using zetsu'

The applicants on the boat slowly started to thin as more left until it was finally Adam's turn.

Adam walked into the forest then sprinted through the woods not using all his strength and keeping up his guard for any projectiles since he had already fallen to a surprise attack before and didn't want to fall for it again.

'If anyone's following me they'll have some difficulty keeping up with me and manoeuvring around this forest without falling, I remember when I was on that damned island I used to trip all the time on branches'

After running for 20 minutes Adam finally came to a halt in front of a small pond.

'I don't feel anyone's aura around me'

Adam then grabbed a leaf from a tree and scooped up some water in his hands and put the leaf on top. Adam then performed ren hoping that with his limited amount of time of practice with it he could still find out his type and also hoping that he didn't need a glass or else he would have to wait longer before he could find out his type.

Adam knew that time can cost him, as every moment in this world his life is in danger from the large number of psychopaths, like Hisoka or Illumi who are on this island with him and had already learnt nen. Even just the physically strong and skilled individuals of this world like Killua who hadn't even learnt nen yet, but is a master assassin at his young age of 12 and can already open the gates at his house, which are tons in weight and could kill him despite Adam being capable of using nen.

[hope you're enjoying it so far after the hunter's exam I'm going to try to slow it down a bit]

(Thanks for reading, If anyone feels like buying me a coffee: Ko-fi.com/hunter931)