The Unfinished "Last Words"

Gon's adult, muscular body began to shrink at a visible rate.

His floor-length black hair rapidly shortened like a receding tide, his swollen muscles gradually subsided, and his torn clothes hung loosely from his body. This was no ordinary unconsciousness. The price of Restrictions and Vows was beginning to show—once the body created through Forced Growth lost the support of Nen, it would rapidly wither back to its original teenage form.

But the life he had burned away, the future he had sacrificed, would never come back.

His body curled up in the center of the arena, his breathing so shallow it was nearly inaudible. The dark red glow of Nen around his skin gradually faded, leaving only several pale red, crack-like marks stretching from his neck to his wrists. They were the brands Forced Growth had left on his body, proof of the power he had traded his life for.

He was like a vacuum collapsing inward, a void in vitality so severe that even the finest healing-type Nen users would not dare touch him lightly.

"Gon!"

The young Gon vaulted down from the stands and scrambled toward the center of the arena, dropping to his knees beside the shrinking body. He reached out, yet did not dare touch him, afraid that the fragile body would shatter like glass at the slightest contact.

He looked at that face identical to his own. More mature than he was now, but also far more haggard. Deep shadows lay beneath his eyes, dried blood lingered at the corner of his mouth, and his cracked lips resembled drought-stricken earth.

"Saitama... he is..." Young Gon raised his head, his voice trembling beyond recognition.

"It's you." Saitama crouched beside him and looked at the unconscious figure on the ground, his tone calm. "You from the