The Path of Emission

Nen appeared at Joey's fingertip, and as he concentrated, it gradually formed a sphere that hovered above his finger.

He maintained the little sphere of Nen for over a minute before gently tossing it out.

His target was a round practice target set up in the living room.

The sphere struck the edge of the target and burst with a pop.

The target swayed slightly from the hit, then settled back into place.

Meanwhile, Joey had already begun gathering a second sphere at his fingertip.

This was the most basic training method for Emission Nen: repeatedly releasing Nen and controlling it after it left the body to attack a target.

The defining feature of Emission Nen was that aura retained its power after leaving the body. Even at great distances, its power would not diminish.

Any ability that involved controlling Nen outside the body relied on Emission.

This characteristic also made Emission users better suited to medium- and long-range combat.

Of course, since Emission sat right beside Enhancement, truly powerful Emission users would not be weak in close combat, either.

As a fundamental hallmark of Emission abilities, Nen Bullet was one of the abilities Emission users employed most often.

Emission users also had a considerable aptitude for spatial abilities. Unlike Conjuration users, who excelled at altering space, Emission users were better at moving space.

Abilities such as Teleportation, Space Traversal, Spatial Exchange, Spatial Cutting, and Spatial Concealment thus became paths many Emission users chose to pursue.

Beyond these abilities, Emission users were also among those most adept at using Nen Beasts.

After all, the category bordering Emission on its other side was Manipulation.

Able to draw out up to eighty percent of Manipulation's power, most Emission Nen users would choose to release aura spheres and use Manipulation to give them simple commands, turning them into basic Nen Beasts.

Joey remembered quite a few Emission users.

One example was Franklin, a member of the Phantom Troupe who specialized in Nen Bullets.

His ability, Double Machine Gun, fired Nen Bullets from his fingertips with enough power to inflict lethal damage even on ordinary Nen users.

Razor, the big boss of the Greed Island arc, was highly proficient with both Nen Bullets and Nen Beasts.

A single volleyball-like Nen Bullet was enough to destroy a fishing boat.

His numerous Nen Beasts could even play an entire ball game. He was the pinnacle of the Emission users Joey knew.

Another ability he remembered was Eleven Men Under the Eaves, but all eleven were ordinary people. Though they looked just like real people and would be useful in certain situations, they seemed a little weak for battles against Nen users.

There was also Leorio's punch that crossed space, Goreinu's Black and White Sage, which could swap his position or an enemy's, and so on.

Joey reviewed the various abilities in his mind, but he actually already had a rough training direction and an Emission ability he wanted to develop.

Before that, though, he needed to establish a solid foundation.

Nen Bullets were one of the basic applications of Emission.

In Joey's view, they were also the best fit for Killer Queen's ability.

In particular, Stray Cat-the Stand that complemented Killer Queen's ability in JOJO-could be recreated entirely through Emission Nen combined with a certain degree of Manipulation.

He could develop this as an add-on for Killer Queen's ability and equip Emperor Killer with it first.

Stray Cat's ability was to fire air cannons.

It was practically identical to Emission's Nen Bullets. In other words, Joey only needed to train his Nen Bullets well. He would not even need to increase their power. As long as he imbued them with Killer Queen's First Bomb, they would become super bombs that struck wherever he aimed.

But after he mastered Gold Experience, Stray Cat no longer seemed quite so appealing.

Gold Experience was more flexible. With just a little Manipulation, he could deftly control living creatures to work with Killer Queen, making the life created by Gold Experience more useful than "Stray Cat" most of the time.

That did not mean Nen Bullets were useless, however.

On the contrary, Joey had some ideas for Nen Bullets, and he would certainly create Stray Cat as well.

Emission's advantage in combat lay in fighting at medium and long range.

At long range, he could also mix the First Bomb into his Nen Bullets to catch enemies off guard.

His only real weakness was close combat. Emperor Killer was hardly powerful in a melee, but with the First Bomb's effect supporting him, Joey did not fear close combat either.

Even with Gold Experience, Emission was still the best match for Killer Queen's ability.

After all, Joey's development of Gold Experience was still focused more on healing.

So Joey would learn Nen Bullets and even devote considerable effort to them, but only during the stage when he was building his Nen fundamentals.

Once he felt his foundation was sufficient, he would develop his Emission Nen in the direction he had envisioned.

In particular, he had one goal: to use Emission to create a Nen Beast that could serve as a vessel for "Gold Experience."

Over the past few days, he had gradually worked out an approach.

That way, even if the Wallet posed some hidden danger in the future, it would only harm the Nen Beast he emitted, rather than endanger him.

That was right. Even though the Wallet had shown Joey countless signs of goodwill, he had not completely lowered his guard.

After creating the severed hand and healing Kite, he had even deliberately kept himself from entering the Specialization Nen state again.

He only allowed the Wallet's Nen to nourish him and accelerate the growth of his potential aura reserves.

Even for this accelerated training, Joey planned to have Gold Experience filter the Wallet's Nen once he had finished creating the Gold Experience Stand, before absorbing it himself to speed up his training.

The key to all this lay in the extra portion of Nen the Wallet absorbed when he entered the Specialization state.

Thinking about this, Joey could not help scoffing at the personality theory.

He had suddenly remembered that Melody, another Emission user, was neither impatient nor careless.

It would not even be an exaggeration to call her extraordinarily perceptive!

Yet she, too, was an Emission user.

So how did merely being seen through by Kite, who had more information, make him careless?

Basic Emission training involved constantly increasing the amount of aura one released, as well as the amount one could release in an instant.

It progressed from releasing aura spheres from the fingertips to attack targets, to releasing them from the palms, then expanding until they could be released from every part of the body.

The final step was to release enough aura from the palms to keep oneself hovering, or even flying.

Only then would one have fully and perfectly completed the fundamental training for Emission Nen abilities.

Of course, developing one's own ability did not actually require a perfect foundation. Being able to release Nen from most parts of the body was enough.

This was also the choice most people made. Once they could release sufficiently large aura spheres from certain parts of their bodies, they began trying to develop a signature move.

After all, achieving sustained flight through basic Emission abilities alone was extremely difficult for most Nen users.

It would not even be an exaggeration to say that the flight stage could weed out eighty percent of Nen users.

Most people would give up along the way, and some would even train flight itself as their signature move.

Though they could still achieve flight, they would remain far behind experts who reached that level through fundamental training alone.

After all, your signature move was merely my basic attack! The gap between their levels was already as vast as heaven and earth.

For Joey, who could currently release only ping-pong-ball-sized aura spheres from his fingertips, the road ahead was still very long.