Grudge

"Finally..."

In the quiet, dim room, Moyu looked down at his palm, soft light reflected in his pupils.

A white glow shimmered over his hand, looking extremely unstable.

This white glow was Life Energy naturally leaking from the human body. It could also be called "aura" or "Nen."

Ordinary people could hardly sense aura's existence, so they could only let it leak away naturally.

Sensing aura, releasing aura, retaining aura.

That process had never been easy.

Moyu had felt his way along, taking nearly a year to barely gain control of his aura.

This stage meant he had officially crossed the threshold called "Nen."

But compared to this meaningful first step, what made him even happier was—

"Getting the hang of Ten was expected. The most important thing is... my soul has finally synchronized."

Moyu slowly let out a breath. His feelings suddenly grew complicated, and he murmured, "It's already been a year. Time really flies..."

A year ago, he'd been driving back to his hometown.

Then, as he passed through a highway tunnel, a huge bank of dense fog with strangely low visibility had appeared up ahead.

He hadn't reacted too slowly. He'd gently tapped the brakes and switched on the fog lights.

But the instant he and the car plunged into the fog, his vision had suddenly spun. By the time he came to, his soul had attached itself to the body of someone named Moyu Isaac.

At the same time, all kinds of fragmented memories had appeared in his mind.

At the time, Moyu had been completely bewildered, with no idea what was happening.

And those fragments of memory hadn't helped him quickly figure out his situation. Instead, they'd caused various minor problems with his mind and body afterward.

Worse still, at first, everything had felt unfamiliar.

Fortunately, the body's original owner seemed to have fallen unconscious after suffering a head injury...

That gave him an excuse to claim amnesia, allowing him to slowly get used to his surroundings.

Over the following year, Moyu had shut himself away, overcoming the various problems with his body while studying, reading, and exercising.

Then, after learning from various books and digesting some of the memory fragments that he'd transmigrated into the world of Hunter x Hunter, he'd begun trying to sense the presence of "aura."

Today, his efforts had finally borne fruit.

Now, he felt completely relaxed, as if reborn.

"But I still have a long way to go..."

Moyu focused, imagining the Life Energy leaking out of him wrapping around his body.

After realizing this was the world of Hunter x Hunter, his first thought had been to learn Nen.

It was an important backup and safeguard for him, so he had to master this power as well as he could.

In the dark room, a ball of white light shimmered, rising and falling like a wave.

As time passed—

The unsteady glow slowly settled, at a speed visible to the naked eye.

This meant Moyu had gained an initial grasp of Ten and could keep his aura wrapped steadily around himself.

"That was fast."

Moyu looked down at the aura flowing smoothly over him, quite surprised.

He'd thought it would take a long time for the aura to go from unsteady to flowing smoothly, but he'd managed it in less than ten minutes.

Was his progress so quick because his body's rejection reaction had disappeared?

There was no way to know.

Moyu didn't dwell on it.

Now that his aura had settled into a stable state, his next goal was to make that state instinctive.

At that point, it would be like having a transparent suit of armor covering every inch of his body at all times.

And retaining the "aura" that would otherwise leak away, then keeping it wrapped around himself day and night, was equivalent to curbing the depletion of his "Life Energy." Living to a hundred would be no problem.

Thinking of this, Moyu raised his eyes to the night outside the window, his heart filled with motivation.

Now, it was time to embrace this New World.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, Moyu's attention was caught by a strange wisp on the windowsill.

"What's that..."

He looked closely.

The strange thing was a wisp of black vapor, floating above the windowsill like a willow seed.

"Black aura, and very faint."

Moyu stared at the wisp of black vapor.

He recognized it at a glance as aura left behind after a human died. It could also be considered the Nen, death energy, obsession, spirit, or even Grudge that lingered after death.

In this world, lingering Nen after death was fairly common.

But the "Nen" left behind when ordinary people died was usually extremely faint, almost imperceptible, and incapable of affecting reality.

Only "Nen" steeped in "powerful emotions" before death had any real strength or the ability to influence phenomena.

Even then, the "Nen" left behind by ordinary people usually couldn't threaten a Nen user, no matter how powerfully charged with emotion it was.

Curiously, in this world where anyone could learn "Nen" through steady practice...

Most Nen users lacked the ability to eradicate "Grudge," even when it posed no threat at all.

Only a small group of Nen users known as Nen Exorcists could eradicate "Nen."

The completely black energy before him was Nen dyed black by powerful emotions.

It had always been there. Moyu just hadn't been able to see it before.

Now Moyu could open his Aura Nodes and had already learned Ten, so with the help of the "aura" gathered around him, he could see the "Grudge" ordinary people couldn't.

"Why is there Grudge in the Temple? Could it be..."

Moyu rested a finger against his chin, looking thoughtful.

The home of the body's previous owner was a Temple built on a mountain in a scenic area. Besides that, there was also his monk father, who didn't abstain from meat or alcohol.

As for anything unusual about the Temple—

Apart from fortune sticks, incense, and tossing coins into the Release Pond in front of the main hall to make a wish, there was also the storage of personal effects.

Placing the deceased's belongings on an offering table along with their final wishes was one of the Temple's specialties.

So.

This wisp of Grudge had most likely emerged from that pile of belongings.

Moyu stood and walked slowly over to the window, observing the black Grudge from up close.

It was weak, with the sense that it would scatter at the slightest touch.

It posed virtually no threat to ordinary people, let alone him, who had only just crossed the threshold to becoming a Nen user.

"Huh?"

Moyu looked down at the bottom of the Grudge.

He noticed it wasn't floating rootlessly. A thinner strand of black aura was connected to its base.

"A thread?"

Moyu narrowed his eyes and instinctively followed the black strand with his gaze, looking out into the courtyard.

From where he stood, he could see the courtyard paved with blue-green bricks in front of the main hall. In the very center stood a Release Pond about half the size of a basketball court.

It was called a Release Pond, but there were no living creatures in it, only water and coins covering the entire bottom.

At that moment,

Moyu's attention was firmly fixed on the Release Pond.

Under the moonlight, the still surface of the pond had somehow become covered in a swamp-like layer of thick black Grudge, radiating a soul-chilling presence.

Cold and violent.

Filled with utter malice!

The instant the scene came into focus, Moyu felt a very real sense of danger.

"You've got to be kidding..."

The sight that had entered his vision made Moyu's eyes widen.

A chill surged up his spine and spread through his entire body in an instant.

Why had such an unremarkable Temple accumulated so much Grudge?

A pile of personal effects couldn't possibly have created something like this!

At this level of strength, an ordinary person would probably die on the spot from the slightest touch.

Yet he'd been here for a year and hadn't noticed the huge mass of Grudge gathered in the Release Pond at all?

And the tourists who came to visit the Temple and burn incense had never been harmed when they tossed coins into the pond and made wishes.

Countless questions flashed through Moyu's mind.

At the same time, the dangerous presence radiating from the mass of Grudge made him retreat quickly. He only wanted to get away from this extremely dangerous thing.

Perhaps Moyu's gaze or retreating movement had agitated the Grudge in the pond. Or perhaps it had been drawn to the aura around him.

The thick mass of Grudge seemed to gain a will of its own. It rapidly contracted, then lunged toward Moyu through the air.

It was incredibly fast. In a single breath, it crossed dozens of meters and reached Moyu.

Moyu instantly felt as though he'd fallen into an ice cellar. He had only enough time to release as much aura as he could to form a defense before the Grudge struck him, knocking him unconscious on the spot.

The mass of black Grudge didn't attack Moyu again. It simply hovered quietly in midair.

The room was so quiet that a pin could have been heard dropping. The moonlight outside the window silently vanished, and the night grew as dark as thick ink. Everywhere he looked was oppressive.

The tiny Temple perched atop the mountain seemed to conceal an unknown secret.

About three seconds passed.

The black Grudge hovering in midair once again assumed an attacking posture.

But just as it lunged toward Moyu, a circular opening suddenly expanded across the surface of the Release Pond, like a sewer entrance with its manhole cover lifted.

In the middle of the circular opening floated a red, glowing Go Straight Marker.

The instant this sewer-like opening appeared on the pond's surface, the black Grudge that had been lunging toward Moyu abruptly froze in midair.

Immediately afterward, it was as if an invisible force tugged at the black Grudge, pulling it toward the circular opening on the surface of the Release Pond.

The black Grudge struggled frantically, but to no avail.

Within a few seconds, the force pulled it into the opening, where it vanished without a trace.

As the black Grudge disappeared, the circular opening abruptly shrank to a black dot, then vanished into thin air.

The room fell silent again, quiet enough to hear a pin drop.

After a while,

A small black dot first appeared on the wall beside the window, its edges glowing with Nen. Then it expanded into a pitch-black circular opening more than a meter across.

In the opening, where it was too dark to see one's fingers, a green Go Straight Marker floated in the center.

Without a sound, the green light on the marker grew hazier.

Then two figures, one large and one small, emerged from the hazy green light.

The larger figure was a bald, middle-aged man with a thick beard and no eyebrows.

This bald middle-aged man was none other than Hawk, the father of Moyu's previous self.

The smaller figure was a rather peculiar-looking mouse about the size of a soccer ball.

It had no nose or mouth, and its large, round eyes took up nearly half of its face. Its ears had no outer rims, only spiral-like markings.

A three-dimensional Go Straight Marker sat atop its head. At the end of its long, pointed tail was an angry face about the size of an infant's fist, formed from "aura."

Hawk was shrouded in a layer of bright Nen. After coming through the green-marked passage, he hurried over to Moyu.

The strange-looking mouse followed close behind him, its steps utterly silent.

Hawk crouched down and checked Moyu's condition. After confirming that his injuries weren't serious, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Moyu, you little rascal..."

Hawk stared at Moyu's face with a strange look and muttered to himself:

"You knew nothing about Nen, yet you awakened it on your own under the suppression of God Script... Was it a fluke, or are you exceptionally talented?"

After a pause, Hawk sighed, worry showing on his face.

"Awakening Nen before the Price is completely resolved isn't a good thing."

The next morning.

Soft morning light streamed through the window, filling every corner of the room.

Moyu's eyes flew open, and he sprang out of bed on reflex.

"Bed..."

Realizing he'd been lying in bed, Moyu still maintained his state of Ten right away.

Then he jumped out of bed and pressed his back against the wall beside the window, cautiously peering toward the Release Pond.

A thin mist filled the courtyard, with morning light weaving through it. The scene looked dreamlike.

The huge mass of Grudge he'd seen last night had vanished, and he couldn't sense a trace of its presence.

"It's gone..."

Moyu frowned and murmured, "Was it a dream?"

He looked away and carefully checked his body. There was nothing wrong with him, and he wasn't even dirty.

But the instant he'd been attacked last night, the pain had been so intense and real.

If he'd really been hit by Grudge of that strength, there was no way he'd be unhurt.

Injuries would have been inevitable.

But the truth was that his body was completely unharmed. Not a scratch. That was strange...

"Maybe I was just too tired."

Moyu shook his head slightly. The root of that mass of Grudge had been connected to the Release Pond. If it had really existed, it couldn't have disappeared so completely, and he was unharmed. He chalked last night's experience up to a nightmare, then headed for the bathroom.

Rushing water—

He turned on the faucet, and water poured out.

Moyu cupped some water in his hands and splashed it over his face, then looked at the mirror.

Reflected in the mirror, its surface spattered with droplets, was a young face with fair skin and delicate features.

Thirteen.

That was how old he was in this body.

He was a little young, but he was quite the looker.

In his previous life, Moyu had also been handsome, and lots of girls had pursued him.

But compared with how he looked now, there was still a huge difference.

Sometimes, if he looked in the mirror for too long, he couldn't help wondering if he was really Hawk's biological son.

Just as Moyu was marveling at his looks, a voice suddenly rang out in his head—

"Because of your exceptionally striking appearance, Perception is very satisfied. Your number of Exorcisms has increased by 1."

"???"

Moyu froze.

New book launch—! Please add it to your favorites, recommend it, and keep reading!

During the time I spent lying around, I felt so lost. It was like I'd lost my direction. I didn't know what I should do, or what I could do...

One day, a fellow asked me when I was going to start a new book and what genre I planned to write...

I casually blurted out, "I'll write a Hunter story. I'll call it I Am Really Not a Nen Exorcist."

I really was just making it up...

But I was genuinely lost, so I figured I might as well slap myself on the head and start writing it...

There are a few ideas in this book that I'll borrow from Gourmet Hunter, and the concept of "Perception" was also an idea from the later parts of that book...

Anyway, I'll do my best to write a good book, one that all you dear readers will enjoy.