"Cheng Xia, hurry up and jump!"
A chubby boy surfaced and looked up, urging Cheng Xia on as he stood at the edge of the reservoir.
"I'm screwed."
Cheng Xia stared down at the terrifying drop, his legs shaking uncontrollably.
Helplessly, he turned toward Cheng Dong, who was engrossed in a book beside him.
"Bro, I'm about to jump! Hurry up and talk me out of it!"
Cheng Dong glanced up at him impatiently, then immediately returned his attention to the manga in his hands.
"If you're jumping, get on with it. If you're dying, do it somewhere else. Quit yapping."
"...Badass."
Cheng Xia was speechless.
"Xia chickened out! Hahaha!"
"Cheng Xia, why not just chop it off? The Eastern Depot needs talent like you."
"Exactly. Not like you've got any use for your balls."
"Why are you acting like a girl? If you're scared to jump, just admit you're a chicken."
That was how elementary school kids were. They always wanted to look superior to their friends, then lord it over them in every possible way.
"Fuck! If these little shits look down on me, how am I supposed to show my face in class?"
Even second graders seemed to have plenty of little cliques in their classes.
You could do ten thousand badass things, but fall short of someone else at just one thing, and you would face a relentless storm of ridicule.
A boy's pride was that ridiculous. He simply couldn't stand being looked down on.
At that thought, Cheng Xia steeled himself and leaped, his whole body plunging toward the water in free fall.
Splash!
A huge spray erupted across the surface, and Cheng Xia's small figure disappeared beneath it.
Glug, glug-
The impact had been too strong. When Cheng Xia opened his eyes, he could barely make out a sliver of sunlight.
That meant he was already very far beneath the surface.
Cheng Xia felt he could still save himself.
He swam toward that faint light with every ounce of strength he had.
As he struggled, he felt an undertow surging beneath his feet. Before he could react, Cheng Xia was swept into it.
His consciousness gradually blurred, and his eyes slowly lost focus.
In the final instant before his consciousness faded, Cheng Xia seemed to see his own body floating limply up toward the surface.
His consciousness, however, sank to the bottom.
May 1997, Hunter calendar
Trees grew thick in the ancient jungle, and sunlight could only slip through gaps in the leaves, scattering mottled patches of light and shadow.
A cloud of dust rose at the far end of a winding trail.
A boy in an orange-yellow jacket came running from the distance, gasping for breath, his sweat-soaked clothes clinging wetly to his body.
Close behind him was a ferocious Shadowfang Beast. It was enormous, around four meters long, with powerful limbs, razor-sharp claws, and pointed teeth.
Even seasoned master hunters wouldn't lightly attempt to capture such a beast.
"Master! Master! I can't take it anymore! I give up!" The boy's clothes were already in tatters, and his once-delicate, cute features were contorted.
Kite stood atop a tall tree.
He merely watched the boy's bedraggled state in silence, showing no sign of intervening.
This boy was none other than Cheng Xia, who had transmigrated into the Hunter world after falling into the water three years earlier.
After rescuing him back then, Kite had discovered that the child couldn't speak the common language.
After babbling to himself for a while, his eyes had suddenly turned red. Only then had Kite realized that he was a survivor of the Kurta Clan.
Since Cheng Xia hadn't inherited the memories of this body's original owner, Kite hadn't told him about his identity either.
He had simply assumed the boy had amnesia and named him Kaya.
News of the Kurta Clan's massacre had dominated the front pages for those months.
For Kaya's safety, Kite had used Nen to seal his eyes directly, preventing them from turning scarlet when he became emotional.
He had also kept Kaya by his side, teaching him language, writing, and hand-to-hand combat while searching for his own master-Ging Freecss.
However, Kite hadn't taught Kaya Nen.
While sealing his Scarlet Eyes, he had discovered that Kaya's body held far more aura than an ordinary person's.
He was a genius who appeared only once in tens of millions!
But he was too young, and his worldview had yet to settle.
If someone awakened that terrifying aura and then exploited him, this already troubled world would gain another demon.
So Kite planned to raise him until he was at least twelve, then have him learn Nen gradually through the Hunter Exam.
"Master, save me! I don't want to die!"
This wasn't training. He was gambling with his life.
Without a weapon, he couldn't pierce the beast's defenses, and with forty kilograms of weights strapped to his legs, he couldn't use his speed advantage to put distance between them either.
Kaya glanced back at the steadily approaching Shadowfang Beast, beads of sweat covering the back of his head.
"Pay closer attention to your surroundings. Make full use of the natural environment and whatever useful resources are available to defeat an opponent stronger than yourself. That's the point of this lesson."
Kite had no intention of intervening. He leaned against the trunk and took a swig of liquor.
"I don't buy it. Not unless you try it yourself."
"And isn't training supposed to progress gradually? Like catching a chicken first or something? This is way too much! I can't handle it!"
Kaya panted heavily. Several hours of doing nothing but fleeing had clearly begun to wear him down.
Barely had he finished speaking when he suddenly felt a chill against his back.
Kaya stopped short and rolled backward with his momentum.
A sharp pain shot through his back as he rolled.
Gritting his teeth against the pain, Kaya reached behind him. His hand came away wet, and when he raised it to look, it was covered in blood.
"Fuck! I'm telling you right now, if you lay one more finger on me..."
Before he could finish, the Shadowfang Beast growled and lunged at him again.
"I'll run!"
Kaya leaped up and crouched on a treetop, patting his chest.
"Shadow, you're seriously trying to kill me?"
Provoked by his taunting, the Shadowfang Beast grew exceptionally agitated, drool dripping constantly from its mouth.
"You old bastard, isn't this enough? Are you really trying to get me killed?"
Kaya looked toward Kite, who was standing high above him and taking long gulps of liquor.
"Sorry for the trouble, but could you put that aside and at least go through the motions of saving me?"
"Handle it yourself."
Kite knew the brat was simply lazy-too lazy to use his brain.
"Hey, come on! You can't just stand there and watch your handsome, obedient, extraordinarily gifted genius of an apprentice die here, can you?"
"So where is he?" Kite looked around.
"..."
Kaya had been shut down, but his mouth still wouldn't stop:
"I know you want me dead so you can become the most handsome man on the Aijin Continent."
"You even told me not to climb trees at first. If I'd listened to your bullshit, I'd already be dead."
Before he had finished speaking, the Shadowfang Beast suddenly leaped up and began climbing the tree at an astonishing speed.
"Fuck! It can climb trees!"
Kaya swiftly sprang to another tree, but the Shadowfang Beast wasn't about to be outdone and followed close behind.
The chase between boy and beast had turned from a pursuit on the ground into an airborne scramble for survival.
"This brat really never shuts up."
Kite simply couldn't understand how someone as quiet as himself had raised such a shameless apprentice. That mouth never stopped moving.
Kaya glanced at the Shadowfang Beast behind him, then immediately turned away, not daring to look again.
The beast's razor-sharp claws and teeth gave him no chance to get close. How the hell was he supposed to fight it?
If he couldn't win with strength, he would have to win with wits.
Kaya's gaze swept rapidly over the surrounding trees.
A hundred meters ahead, the branches of two large trees intertwined, forming a natural opening.
The opening wasn't very large, but his body could fit through it.
Kaya's eyes darted, and an idea came to him.
Without the slightest hesitation, he raced toward the intertwined branches.
To mislead the Shadowfang Beast, he deliberately slowed down, keeping a tantalizing distance between them.
There were two reasons for doing this: first, it would keep the Shadowfang Beast focused on him, making it overlook its surroundings;
Second, the closer he stayed to the Shadowfang Beast, the less it could see ahead, and the greater his chances of success.
The downside was that if he misjudged the distance even once, he would meet his end right here today.
Still, ever since Kaya had entered the world of Hunter x Hunter, his attitude had been fucking fantastic.
Since he was here, he might as well make some waves, right?
If he had a chance to make something of himself someday, wouldn't that beat growing up to become a corporate drone on Blue Star?
Before you continue