The sharp teeth around Blinky's head spun rapidly, roaring like an industrial saw.
Shizuku aimed the modified vacuum cleaner at the corner of the coffee table and pressed down.
The chainsaw head didn't slow down for a second. It carved through the wood like butter. The cross-section came away smooth and flat, no splinters.
Liam clapped slowly. "Not bad at all."
Shizuku stuck her tongue out slightly. "I could never get the aura to feel 'sharp' enough. So I had to compromise like this."
"The most important thing about Nen abilities is that they suit you," Liam agreed. "This works."
According to his understanding, transforming aura into something as sharp as a blade required one of several things. You had to be a swordsman yourself. You had to have a sharp, aggressive personality. You had to be some kind of psychopath who enjoyed cutting meat with knives. Or you had to be like Gon in the manga, operating on pure childlike intuition. Kids just assumed things should work a certain way, so they did.
Sometimes not overthinking things and relying on instinct actually helped abilities manifest. That "taken for granted" subconscious belief could bridge the gap between fantasy and reality.
But Shizuku didn't fit any of those categories. She didn't enjoy killing. She wasn't a swordsman. She didn't have a sharp, aggressive personality. She might be curious about random things like games, but even then, she'd play once and forget about it immediately after. She'd only thought of developing sharp aura properties to complement Blinky's function.
In other words, deliberately designing an ability this way without genuine belief behind it meant you'd have to work twice as hard.
Belief. Faith.
The word "Nen" contained that character for a reason. It showed how important conviction was.
Aura was life energy and spiritual power combined.
Sure, if Shizuku insisted on continuing to practice for a few more years, she might eventually transform her aura into genuinely sharp properties. But that wouldn't be efficient enough.
So she'd adapted. After staring at Blinky's mouth full of fangs long enough, inspiration struck.
The ability manifested quickly because it aligned with her heart.
Shizuku had combined the sharpness of Transmutation with the Conjured form of Blinky she could already create. Blinky gained a small transformation mode. Vacuum cleaner form could switch to chainsaw form to carve wounds into enemies. Once the injury was opened, switch back to vacuum mode to drain their blood and finish them off. If you accidentally sawed someone into pieces? Just use Blinky to clean up the battlefield.
"If you're willing to add more restrictions, you could probably shorten the development time even further," Liam mused. "For example, you could make it so that to transform aura into sharp properties, you have to carry a weapon like a dagger on your person at all times."
Like Killua's Transmutation ability in the manga. He'd reinforced his imagination of transforming his body's aura into electricity by repeatedly shocking himself with actual electric currents. In the end, it took him only a day to develop it to a usable state. But taking shortcuts naturally created built-in limitations. He'd left himself with the subconscious requirement of "I need to recharge before I can use this ability." So he genuinely needed to charge himself periodically, or he'd run out of juice mid-battle.
"That makes sense!" Shizuku said suddenly. "I could have Blinky store a large number of daggers or blades in advance. And if I add another restriction where I have to cut myself first to experience the sharp feeling, maybe I could develop the Transmutation properties even faster."
She was already extrapolating from the example.
"Self-mutilation seems unnecessary, doesn't it?" Liam said, slightly mortified.
Shizuku pointed at the inside of her left thigh, blinking as if to say: I have your Star Mark on my body. Even if I scratch my skin, it'll heal itself almost immediately. Not even a scar will remain.
"You think you're the Female Titan or something," Liam snorted. "Having to cut yourself before transforming. Just carry a dagger. Take it slow. After the Transmutation system develops successfully, you can throw the training wheels away."
Shizuku nodded. "Liam's new ability also has a lot of restrictions."
"Without enough restrictions, I wouldn't have gotten the results I have now," Liam said seriously. "Honestly, I think it's a little cheap."
Shizuku said fairly, "It's a technique only you can use, though."
Liam corrected her, "Only someone with a Star Mark can use it."
Shizuku thought for a moment. "True."
"Speaking of which, I remember hearing people talk about concepts like memory capacity and reading capacity," Liam said. "Does Nen have an upper limit on hard drive space? I've developed several abilities now and I don't feel anything different."
He looked at Shizuku. She shook her head. "I've never heard of anything like that."
Memory capacity was probably Hisoka's personal theory from the manga, Liam thought. Just like Hisoka's personality test for judging Nen types. Personal experience, not universal law.
As for reading capacity, Liam had long forgotten where he'd even seen that term in his previous life. It seemed like a concept scholars brought up when debating the finer points of the series.
"Where's our strategist? Let's pick his brain," Liam said, pulling out his phone. "His abilities are way more complicated than ours."
May 10th. Heavens Arena, 225th floor.
Amid the cheers of the audience, Wing won his ninth victory without much suspense.
Liam estimated that over eighty percent of the fighters in Heavens Arena had been forcibly baptized before awakening Nen the hard way. That meant most of them were left with some degree of permanent disability.
Not everyone was like Tetsuro, who'd happened to develop a broken ability perfectly suited to enclosed ring combat through sheer obsessive willpower.
Even with Wing's strength from two or three months ago, as an Enhancer naturally suited to ring fighting, consecutive victories at Heavens Arena made perfect sense.
He emphasized "two or three months ago" for a reason.
"He's definitely gotten stronger," Shizuku observed, watching the referee declare Wing the winner.
"If he didn't come here to get stronger, there'd be no point," Liam said. "Whether it's for the opponents gathered at Heavens Arena, or just to find a suitable training environment, everyone who comes here has the same goal. To improve. Even someone like Hisoka who's just here for entertainment. For a guy like that, the act of finding fun keeps him mentally stimulated and his thoughts clear. Once he understands that about himself, his strength naturally progresses."
Thoughts clear?
Liam muttered to himself while Kurapika beside him said thoughtfully, "Memory capacity? Reading capacity? I've never encountered those problems."
"If you want my analysis, the so-called memory capacity is actually just the distribution of your brain's thinking ability and concentration," Kurapika said, eyes closed. "If your thinking is agile enough, and the ability you develop belongs to a field you're good at and familiar with, you won't have trouble with insufficient memory capacity."
"It takes a lot of energy to construct an overly complex ability," Liam added. "It requires constant focus to maintain. Beginners can't even keep their ability active while fighting at the same time. The moment they want to engage in combat, the aura in their body goes haywire. In that case, for beginners, trying to maintain Ten and fight simultaneously causes that so-called insufficient memory capacity."
"Commonly known as brain-lock," Liam said with a nod. "But with practice, beginners improve. Eventually they'll be able to maintain their ability while fighting, analyze enemy techniques, maintain their own techniques, all at the same time."
If you were talented enough, you could even reach the level of Ging Freecss from the manga.
What was he like?
Ging was a monster. As long as he personally experienced a striking ability once, he could immediately replicate it.
In the manga, Leorio had punched him using a teleportation technique. Ging turned around and could use it himself immediately.
Not only could he use it, he could extrapolate from it and deduce additional applications and abilities.
Memory capacity?
As long as you had enough experience, talent, and understanding of Nen, there were no such concerns.
Perhaps in the eyes of masters at Ging's level, the ever-changing variety of Nen abilities, no matter how endlessly they emerged, could eventually be simplified down to see through their essence.
For someone like him, learning and using new abilities might be as effortless as walking, sitting, or lying down was for Liam now.
"As for the so-called reading capacity," Kurapika continued, "I think that's just your total aura capacity under a different name. For example, take my own ability. Assuming my total reading capacity is one hundred, I need to spend sixty to conjure all six books. That means I'd only have forty left at most to do other things. Naturally, it would be impossible for me to develop another ability that also costs sixty. Unless I was willing to give up using the original six-book ability."
Shizuku asked curiously, "Your ability really requires sixty percent of your aura?"
"It's just an example."
Consider Gon from the manga. His total aura in the early Chimera Ant arc was around twenty thousand. One charged Jajanken shot burned four thousand aura. In other words, even doing nothing else, he could only fire five Jajanken shots maximum. Assuming Gon developed another technique that also consumed four thousand aura, he could only develop four more techniques at most. Any more than that, and his aura capacity simply couldn't support demonstrating them all. In actual combat with other energy consumption, even if he had five techniques at Jajanken's level, he could only use two or three at most. That was the limit imposed by his reading capacity.
So you either gave up excessive Nen techniques, or you continued increasing your total aura reserves.
"That's my understanding anyway," Kurapika said, looking puzzled. "Didn't your master answer these questions for you?"
"Who told you I have a master?" Liam said, equally puzzled. "I just knew this stuff when I was born."
Kurapika stared at him with dead eyes. Is this person seriously bragging right now?
"What, am I not allowed to be talented? How could I be your boss if I wasn't awesome?" Liam grinned. "Besides, even if you have someone to guide you, that doesn't mean you can learn everything they know."
As they walked out toward the corridor exit, they spotted Wing at the far end, waving at them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing takes time, coffee, and a lot of love.If you'd like to support my work, join me at [email protected]/GoldenGaruda
You'll get early access to over 50 chapters, selection on new series, and the satisfaction of knowing your support directly fuels more stories.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~