Three Thousand Private Soldiers

The room door closed again. Leorio crouched on the floor, tending to the guard's minor injuries, while Kurapika stood by the table, tracing the links of his chain with a fingertip. He closed his eyes for a moment. The Thumb Chain hung over the tabletop, its tip swaying gently.

Lie-Detecting Thumb Chain, activate.

He repeated the command silently and reviewed every detail of what had just happened.

"Tserriednich's ability is called Rebirth. It's a Specialist ability. Every time he activates it, he has to enter Zetsu, and closing his eyes is the tell. The cooldown is consistently seven seconds." Kurapika opened his eyes and tapped the table. "He doesn't see the future. He returns to five seconds earlier while retaining his memories from the previous run. So the faster Gon's strength grows, the further his memories drift from reality."

Killua leaned against the wall with a lollipop in his mouth and nodded.

"Basically, he reloads a save. But the save only contains what he remembers. If his opponent gets stronger, that save is already out of date."

"Exactly." Kurapika put away his chain. "That's his biggest weakness right now. As long as Gon grows fast enough, his rewinds will never catch up."

Gon crouched nearby and clenched his fist, testing his strength. His eyes shone.

"Then if I train faster, he won't be able to dodge at all?"

He had barely finished speaking before he sprang up and ran toward the corridor.

"I'm going to run five more laps!"

Killua put a hand to his forehead. Once Gon got an idea, there was no stopping him.

Leorio stood up, rubbing his lower back, eager to give it a try.

"Does it really work that well? Maybe I should train too. I might even increase my Nen."

After two laps, he