Awakening Nen

Sunlight streamed through the inn room's window, casting a bright patch on the floor.

Kirkia sat on the sofa, slowly eating an apple.

He watched Odin and Ponzu sitting cross-legged on the floor, his expression unchanged.

"This is day two," he said. "Odin, how do you feel?"

Odin opened his eyes.

He felt the warm current inside his body. It was clearer now than before.

That energy flowed throughout his body, like another form of blood.

"Clearer than yesterday," he said. "I can feel it moving all through me, but I can't control it."

Kirkia nodded. "That's normal. Feeling it is the first step. Next, you'll learn focus, expression, tempering, and action."

He tossed the apple core into the trash, stood up, and walked over to Odin.

"Focus means concentrating your mind on a single point, looking within, and setting a goal," he said. "Try committing yourself firmly to a goal.

"Then comes expression. State your goal with conviction.

"Next is tempering. Strengthen your will and make your conviction even firmer.

"Finally, action. Put your intentions and ideas into practice."

Listening to Kirkia, Odin lowered his head and looked at his right hand.

He tried to fix his goal firmly in his mind, guiding the warm current inside his body so it flowed along his skin.

The warm current moved.

It was slow, like a viscous liquid flowing through a pipe.

Perhaps influenced by the internal energy systems of martial arts fiction, Odin subconsciously felt it should flow from his abdomen to his chest, from his chest to his head, and from his head down the spine along his back.

Finally, it formed a circuit along the surface of his body.

Odin raised his right hand and looked at his palm.

Nothing looked different, but he could feel that warm energy filling his entire body, as though he were soaking in warm water.

"I think I've got it," he said.

Kirkia walked over and looked at the layer of Nen around Odin. Inwardly, he was shocked, but his face remained expressionless.

He cleared his throat softly, returned to the sofa, and sat down. "Good. Keep that up for now. Once you can see the Nen on the surface of your body, we'll move on to the next step. By then, nearly all the aura nodes throughout your body should be open."

Odin nodded and continued maintaining his current state.

Ponzu sat beside him, her eyes still closed and her brow furrowed.

Fine beads of sweat dotted her forehead, and her breathing was a little uneven.

"Ponzu," Kirkia said, "relax. Don't strain so hard. You can't sense aura just by forcing it."

Ponzu opened her eyes and wiped away her sweat.

"I can't feel it," she said. "Not at all."

"That's normal," Kirkia said. "Some people are faster, some are slower. You can't rush it. Rest for a while and watch Odin practice."

Ponzu nodded and sat off to one side, watching Odin. There was no telling what she was thinking.

Time slowly passed. Odin continued practicing the Four Major Principles of Flame, strengthening his intent.

After resting for a while, Ponzu began meditating again.

The third day of learning Nen arrived.

That day, Odin and Ponzu once again came to the inn early to practice.

At around ten, Odin suddenly felt warmth in his eyes, then noticed a change in his vision.

Seeing life energy slowly spilling from the surface of his body, Odin tensed. With a thought, he controlled the energy, making it flow around his body like an external circuit of internal energy. Its path was somewhat different from the Shingen-ryu flow Gon and the others had learned.

"Looks like you've succeeded." Kirkia's voice rang out just as Odin successfully restrained the flow of Nen around his body.

What?!

Ponzu opened her eyes in surprise and stared blankly at Odin.

She still hadn't made any progress, yet Odin had already awakened his Nen.

The gap was startlingly wide.

"Yes, I think I've successfully awakened my Nen." Odin nodded, clearly delighted.

Kirkia smiled. "That's right. Not only have you awakened your Nen, you've also instinctively restrained your aura. That's very good. Get a feel for this state. This is Ten, one of the Four Major Principles I mentioned."

"Ten is a technique that keeps aura flowing around your entire body, greatly enhancing a Nen user's defense."

He paused, then added, "And Ten is the foundation of techniques for using Nen. Only after learning Ten can a Hunter be considered to have truly mastered Nen Abilities."

Odin nodded. "Understood."

"All right," Kirkia said. "Now that you've learned Ten, keep practicing it. Make it a habit, an instinct, something you can maintain without thinking."

"When you aren't using Ten, your defenses are still those of an ordinary person. Getting attacked in that state would be bad news, so ideally, you should be able to activate Ten in an instant."

Puzzled, Ponzu asked, "If that's the case, why not maintain Ten all the time?"

Odin had the same question.

"It's not that simple. Maintaining Ten takes quite a bit of mental effort. Keeping it up constantly is too taxing, and doing it while asleep is even harder." Kirkia shook his head with a chuckle. "As far as I know, only those monsters can pull that off."

After saying that, Kirkia gave Odin a meaningful look.

The days passed one by one.

On the morning of the seventh day, Odin sat on the room's floor with his eyes closed.

His breathing was steady, and the Nen around him flowed so smoothly that he hardly seemed like a beginner.

Kirkia sat on the sofa, watching the Ten around him, and the corner of his mouth twitched despite himself.

That extraordinary control over Nen had genuinely frightened him.

"All right," he said. "Since you're proficient with Ten now, let's find out your Nen Type. That'll give you a direction to work toward."

Ponzu opened her eyes first and looked curiously at Kirkia. "Nen Type?"

"Yes, Nen Type. Next comes Water Divination," he said. "We'll test Odin's Nen Type. Once you awaken your Nen, you'll need to use Water Divination to determine your own type too."

"Nen has six types," Kirkia said. "Enhancement, Transmutation, Conjuration, Emission, Manipulation, and Specialization. Different people are suited to different types. Water Divination tests which one suits you."

As he spoke, Kirkia took a glass filled with water from the nearby table, then pulled a leaf from his pocket and placed it on the water's surface.

"Odin, come here," he said. "Place your hands beside the glass, then channel your Nen into the water."

Odin walked over to the table, placed his hands on either side of the glass, and did as instructed.

He took a deep breath.

Nen surged out from within his body, passing through his arms and flowing into his palms.

Suddenly, the water in the glass began churning violently.

The waves overturned the leaf, sending it spinning across the surface.

The water began to darken, turning from clear to pale blue, then deep blue, until it was almost black.

Tiny points of light appeared on the water's surface, twinkling like stars.

Kirkia stared at the glass, his pupils narrowing slightly.

"Specialization," he said.

Odin pulled his hands away. The water in the glass slowly returned to normal, its color fading and the points of light disappearing.