47. Intuition
Feitan drove them hard, but to say that would have been an understatement.
Perhaps "ground them underfoot" would have been more accurate.
He didn't just have them exercise (no, that was ridiculous); if he was going to have them do any physical work, he was putting them through manual labor. Of course, he did use other methods when he ran out of chores to give them. Working on shaping their aura into letters and running through the alphabet gave them more control over their nen. Trying to hit him with small bursts of their own aura would help in their accuracy and precision. Sparring with Feitan, even if it was slowly, would develop how they used the flow of their nen. And tossing them off a cliff and having them maneuver their way down safely with bursts of their aura would help in all three. It was easier to improve when your life was at risk.
(If any of them failed, he supposed he could jump after them and save the ungrateful brats before they hit the ground. It wouldn't be too hard.)
As Kalluto had already gone through years of tough training as a Zoldyck and already had his Hatsu, he had no need to join them. He was with the other three for simple exercises, but aside from that, he often liked to watch from the sidelines, lounging casually, and infuriating them. Zushi was diligent, and was a bit stuck on Ren, but they had gotten over that obstacle within two days of Feitan pushing him to his limit. His former master had been pretty good, Fei guessed. As for Rein, she was mostly only caught on how she should proceed with her Hatsu, so there weren't many worries there.
Now Lucky was a bit more tricky. He had been using his destructive Nen for all his life—though unknowingly—so using it came naturally to him. It was stopping it that was giving him some real problems.
Zetsu was not an option. As Machi had deduced before, if Lucky closed off all his aura nodes, his destructive Nen would build up inside his body, and he would die. Going unnoticed by Nen users would never be possible for him, but if Feitan made him strong enough, he wouldn't have to meddle with them anyway.
So then came the problem of making him stronger. Lucky's aura was immense to begin with, so he held a lot of power. But power meant nothing if you used too much of it, and Lucky tended to overuse it, a lot. He wasted too much aura on a single move, and the repercussions were inescapable. He would be sparring, but his aura would leak off of him and he would get tired easily. He would panic and send off a huge burst of nen that in turn, ended up flinging Lucky into the air. If he wasn't careful, he might accidentally manipulate his surroundings so that he would be buried alive. There wasn't really any way to know.
He lacked control over his own aura, something that could be fatal in time. The solution? Feitan proposed that he do absolutely nothing for three days straight, or more precisely, react to nothing for three days straight. His nen could not move if he did not feel anything.
Thus, amid a friend group comprised of murderers, thieves, assassins, and orphaned children, Lucky set out upon the most boring day of his life.
Not thinking and not feeling were two very difficult things to accomplish, Lucky decided while walking aimlessly throughout the forest. You have to think about the fact that you can't think or feel, which only causes you to think about that even more, doesn't it? And not feeling. He had to feel the lack of feel and keep it empty of feel while not feeling like he was thinking that he had to think not to feel or he would otherwise end up thinking about the fact that he wasn't supposed to think to feel but to feel and think not.
Calculus had been so much easier.
A lot would have easier, actually, if he'd known about the existence of Nen in the first place. If only he didn't have to have gone through years of confusion and driving all his loved ones away. Perhaps he would have been able to control it better, and perhaps he wouldn't have had to have been so alone.
He looked down at his wrist, at the jade bracelet hidden under all his other woven friendship bracelets. Now that he knew how to use Gyo, he could see it now, the fresh green aura that the jewel gave off. Which meant Uncle Fu, who had given it to him, had known. He'd known and left without saying a word about it to Lucky.
There must have been a reason why his great-uncle had kept silent about the existence of Nen. Maybe he figured that Lucky was too young and would figure it all out in due time. Though he looked up to his great-uncle and respected his decisions, Lucky wished he'd told him before, years before. If only he could have learned to control this force inside of him sooner. Maybe then, he wouldn't have had to lose so much.
Lucky squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. Being left alone with one's thoughts was dangerous. He was supposed to be not thinking at the moment, wasn't he? But no matter how hard he tried to steer away from the topic, his thoughts kept drifting deeper and deeper into a past he'd thought he'd gotten over.
He'd thought he was over it. He thought—
The ground beneath him gave away and he fell. His aura lashed out wildly in his surprise, and he hastily tried to use a few techniques Feitan had taught them concerning landing safely, but it was in vain. The space was too tight, and the shock wave from his nen only made the situation worse, dirt chunks breaking and hurting his eyes. He hit the back of his head at the bottom, and his teeth snapped together violently.
As he was fading out of consciousness, a flash of purple above him released an arrow and hit him square in the chest.
* * *
Kalluto looked towards the woods, breeze playing with his raven hair as he squinted against the wind.
"Kalluto?" Zushi asked, his head tilting. "Is something wrong?"
"I just... nothing." He turned back towards them, now squinting at their actions. While Lucky was off in isolation, Rein and Zushi were to practice forming the entire Hunter alphabet out of their aura.
It was these quiet times that Kalluto liked. Often, the three training under Feitan would be adjusting to their harsh schedule, and Kalluto would watch, not wanting to get involved. It was amusing, watching people at and above his age struggling at cursing at something that he had gotten used to when he was four. But taking a leisurely stroll, shaping their aura and using Gyo? It was something he could easily join.
They were changing their auras steadily, moving through the Hunter letters. Kalluto had already experienced this kind of training before with his father (but it had been with numbers. The alphabet had an end. Numbers did not), so with a run-through once or twice, he had it down. Rein's aura was steady, but she took too long to get it into the position.
And Zushi.
Kalluto looked pointedly at the letters Zushi was forming. "What is that jiggly chicken scratch? Are you having trouble shaping it? I can show you a few techniques I picked up from my old man if you want."
"Is there something wrong with my letters?" Zushi looked at the aura shape quizzically. "It looks exactly like my handwriting to me."
"Your handwriting?" he blurted.
"W-well, i-if my letters now are insufficient, I could... I will work hard to improve them!" He bowed, disregarding his hurt sense of pride.
Kalluto seemed taken aback. "You, uh, you don't need to do that. Not to me. You don't have to bow to me." When the boy stopped however, he smirked. "It doesn't help your chicken scratch."
His head jerked violently forward and back, as if he'd just remembered the specific order to not bow in apology. "It's not that bad," he stated defensively, his cheeks puffing out.
"It is."
"Is not."
"Is too."
"Rein," Zushi said, almost whining, "Is it really that bad?"
It took a moment for Rein to snap out of her thoughts, gazing towards the trees as Kalluto had done. "What? Are you talking?" She caught a glimpse of Zushi's 'ke' letter. "Stars, what is that?"
Kalluto did not snort —he tried to convince himself so—as Zushi slipped into a deeply shocked and offended state.
"My... can't possibly be..." Zushi caught sight of someone walking up the hill and called out to them, wanting at least one person to be on his side. "Phinks-san!"
As soon as he saw who it was, the man scowled and went in the other direction.
Zushi's arm became limp in the air before he pulled it back to his side. He said his words with hesitance. "I don't think Phinks-san likes me very much."
"Phinks doesn't like a lot of people," Rein tried, still not sure what was going on but trying her best to get back in the rhythm of things. "He'll take some time to warm up to, at least, that's how it was with me."
"Yes, but he's always looking at me funny, and it makes me feel guilty." His thick brows drew together. "Did I do something wrong?"
The puzzle pieces finally clicked together in Rein's head, and Kalluto noticed it crystal clear. When she said, "No, no. You just have to get used to him. He'll be like this for a while", it was like she was trying to cover something. The word choice was a dead giveaway. Not a lie, exactly, definitely not a lie. Something else that he couldn't wrap his head around.
But it wasn't his business to pry; it wasn't his place.
(Don't interfere with Mother's business, Kalluto darling.)
He decided to bring it back a few steps, to a neutral point. "Let's run all the way back to Feitan. Try to go through the entire alphabet."
They heeded his suggestion, after all, Feitan would only give them more work if they returned later than per his liking.
"Rein, Kalluto, may I ask a question?" Zushi asked, his letters still not improving. "How do I get Phinks-san to like me?"
"How?" They looked at each other, both only able to offer up shrugs. Rein's aura surged on as she sifted through her memories. She met Kalluto's eyes again, dark and rational. "Don't sweat it. He'll warm up to you sooner or later."
They returned to the area just as they reached the final letter of 'n', and ceased their running. They quickly realized something was amiss.
Rein searched for him, any sign of his aura, but there was nothing to be found. "Fei?"
* * *
Machi was up close to Lucky yet again, observing the many scars that flawed his skin. Most of them were old, but there were newer ones from when he'd fallen into the pit. One was dangerously close to his eye, but it was quite shallow, hardly a bead of blood to be seen. There was a larger scrape traveling down his neck, probably from a sharp tree root he'd caught on when falling, but with a dab of ointment, it would fix itself up rather nicely. He seemed to be in fine condition, ignoring the pulsing wound on his chest.
The arrow had wedged itself fairly close to his lung, but judging from the rip in his flesh and the rate at which it was bleeding, the arrow had been dull. While it would be a pain to have heal, she wouldn't have to worry about accidentally cutting him further when she removed the arrow.
She sighed and took out her sewing kit, her physical one instead of her usual Nen threads. "Using my Hatsu would be a lot quicker, you know."
"No," Feitan ordered from the side. "He needs to get aura as Zetsu-like as he can. No interacting with other Nen."
"Fine." She took a clean thread from the small box and quickly cleansed her needle, using the one stuck into the pincushion on the back of her hand. His shirt was already ripped, so removing it to inspect the wound further was simple. She simply tore it as much as she needed to, and... abdomen.
She observed the injury, yes, but there was something else tugging at her mind.
He was very, for lack of a better word, flat. And not in that way—he was a male, that made obvious sense—but his stomach. It was just... flesh. Machi had never seen this before. Not that she'd seen many people's abdomens aside from those in the Troupe, but it was peculiar. Machi had taken care of many injuries before. Nobunaga with a deep gash that nearly reached down to his spine, Uvo who had gotten a poison knife twisted in his liver, and so forth. But when she had tended to them, they'd all had muscles, abs.
Lucky? He had none. Instead, his middle was smooth, and this sight was foreign to her. Did normal people not have them?
His stomach just looked... squishy.
She was a bit tempted to poke at it, and briefly wondered if it felt like the top of a jellyfish, or a marshmallow.
"Stare at him or fix. Your choice," Feitan said.
She let out a short, quiet huff, pried out the arrow, and got to work. Her hands moved quickly, though she did take her time when she reached the area were the wound was deep and close to his lung. It wasn't just his lack of muscles too, she realized. He was pale to begin with, but his chest was even paler, it almost made her blind, even in the shade of the tent Feitan had first brought him to when he'd discovered Lucky unconscious. She wondered whether he was lacking in vitamin D.
Between his lack of abs and his obvious vitamin deficiency, Machi briefly wondered how he was alive.
His breathing hiccuped, and he stirred.
"You're awake," she commented calmly, and took a free hand to hold him down. "Don't get up. The stitches will be undone."
He instead did the exact opposite, bolting upwards before wincing in pain. His gaze flew from his bare chest to her fingers on it stitching it up. His chalky cheeks were tinted red now from blood rushing through them, and with her heightened senses, Machi could hear his pulse exploding. The full force of the pain catching up to him, he started to reach his hand toward his chest.
Machi stopped him, and with a stern look, made him lay down again so she could continue with her stitching. She soon realized that this would become problematic. She sighed. "Your heart is beating so fast that it's shaking the wound," she articulated, watching as new blood started to emerge from where the arrowhead had been. "Try to stay calm."
He nodded, but his heart rate did not slow.
Machi wasn't quite sure whether he would survive or not, because whatever blood hadn't already spilled out of him was rushing to his cheeks instead of his organs.
Her lips pulled taut, but she remained silent and continued to sew him up. She was confident in her skills, a bit more shaking and loosening stitches was nothing. It would just take more time. She saw Lucky bite his lip to keep from crying out when she stuck in the needle once more.
He swallowed down his cries and stayed silent for a while. "Who found me?" he asked. His first string of words was dry, and his voice cracked.
"Feitan." She tugged on the string, knotting it and finishing it up before cutting it loose. "This all could have been avoided if you'd watched where you were going," she chided, cleaning the needle and sticking it back into her pincushion. "What if you'd gotten a concussion? Or more arrows had come?"
"The arrow was not my fault."
"Purple?" Feitan asked. Their heads whipped to him, and he exhaled. "Purple aura?"
The blush across his face was more subtle this time, more out of surprise if anything. Machi probably wouldn't have noticed it had she not been so close. "Now that you mention it, I think there was. Yeah, it was purple. And..." he trailed off, as if to double check his own memory. "Brown and pinkish too, on the inside. It was a wormhole to a city, I think."
"Shal's taking a while." Machi dropped the hint, her eyes drifting to the tent flap.
Feitan took this as his cue and left to go find him while Lucky asked, "Who? Devil? What's he doing?"
"Off to find some medicinal herbs that I instructed him to find. It'll help with your pain." She watched as he finally started to cradle his chest, hurting from laughing too hard. She shook her head disapprovingly.
He grinned, sheepish.
* * *
Shalnark got straight to the discussion. "It might've been a mistake on our part to just let the attacker be. He's gotten stronger as we have, and it seems like his attacks are becoming more accurate. He's only been attacking with a single arrow every time, but he could start to add arrows pretty soon. We should find him before he becomes a major threat."
"Lucky saw through the portal. Says he saw city."
His eyes lit up. "That's brilliant! We have a lead. There are only so many cities here. Since the attacker's Nen technique has gotten less reckless, if he's been in the city, someone is bound to have felt it as he tried to tame it. Even if he's only been training away from people, a simple description will do if we want someone to recognize his aura on the street. If I ask around, I'll get his whereabouts in no time."
"Don't act on your own."
"What?"
"When you find him, don't act," Feitan ordered, voice low. His mouth twisted into a grim line. "I'll finish him off."
so according to autocorrect
Shalnark=sharkskin
Also like,,, figuring out what to write next was hard? Like
Me: okay I have my plot points in mind, plus I'm giving these characters depth and will introduce so-and-so and make something happen—
Also me: wut order
Whelp this note was a random jumble of stuff
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