After only five days in the new world, there were many things that no longer amaze me. But of the criea of cocks that screed at four o'clock in the morning on the sixty-fourth Avenue of what should be a metropolis were not one them. Or rather, not yet. In the spasmodic search of a hotel suited to my standards that had a fairly convenient location to move, I had not considered being near a prestigious veterinary clinic. The thought that those cocks were accompanying my nights, that were still too hot to sleep with the window closed, began to terrify me.
In another hotel on the other side of Yorknew City, where Gracie was staying, the situation was not so much better: under her window there was a troupe. No, not the Phantom Troupe, but something very similar: the whole complex of the transsexual hookers that was yelling under her balcony. She also had been guilty of a big mistake of judgement: she had not found a place in my hotel, so she threw herself into a search for accommodation in a trendy neighborhood that reminded her of Park Avenue.
"Honey, do you want to take a ride on my horse tonight?" screamed one of them.
"Someone helps me! I desperately need someone up my ass!" did another.
These sentences prevented Gracie from continuing her sleep, now corrupted by the screams of those girls. Mad about her loss of sleep, she decided to spite everyone else. The next morning, we all met to have breakfast, it was there that the Queen of Park Avenue triggered the bomb by telling her night experience.
"Have you ever heard something worse?" she remarked disgusted.
"Let's hope so!" I replied, suffocating with laughter.
"What does 'Someone up my ass' means?" asked, naïve, Gon.
"Okay, let's stop! – Interrupted Kurapika embarrassed, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder – for today, you have learned enough, Gon!"
"Could you not talk about these things during breakfast?" Yelled Leorio.
"Look who's talking! As if you had never opened the back door to one of them... – I said, giggling – you look like the pseudo-straight married men from New Jersey."
"Please, can you postpone this discussion when we have got something inside our bellies?" begged a desperate Killua.
"I haven't told you yet what happened in my room tonight..." I said.
"We don't want to know!" Said in chorus the two youngest hunters.
"Don't worry, it's nothing dirty. Unless someone is sexually aroused by hens. – I answered, In a calm tone – Because that would explain a lot." I concluded by launching a glance at Leorio.
"Hens? But we're in town!" commented Killua.
"That's what I thought, but evidently someone continues to take literally the fact that a Hunter has to be loved by animals."
"I think it's all a plan to make us lose our appetite, so you'll eat everything!" Veiled Gon, ironically.
"More or less. I'm actually on a diet and I'm bothered to see you eat."
Despite everything, it was fun to spend time with them, especially when the moment of the jokes arrived. A general Chuckle burst, then we passed on to more serious subjects.
"You still haven't told me about your Nen, Espedito." Kurapika told me.
"What should I tell you? I don't understand anything yet... "
"Why don't you come with us to the course of tonight? Me and Killua are going to accompany you!" Gon proposed.
"Oh! That would be an idea! Gracie, you're in, right? "I asked her. Gracie, still asleep, nodded.
During the day I continued to do some paperwork for the WCS in my suite, in no time on the desk I had accumulated a large stack of sheets that I did not know how to fix, I had to pin in some files all the useful information for the mission. I wondered if all that writing would take me somewhere, but despite my skepticism about it I ended up compiling the cards that I would have to give to Maxine the following Monday.
Towards the late afternoon, we walked with Gon and Killua to visit an old master of theirs, Wing. I was wondering if this was the good time that I could really understand something that was written in the books.
"You don't have to worry, the guy with the glasses is very smart!" reassured me Killua.
"Hopefully well! I hope I'm not completely denied..." I said.
We entered an apartment with yellow floor and pink walls, with Asian carpets scattered here and there. We were aware of not being the only ones, there were at least four other people.
"Gon! Killua!" called a tall, dark, beguiled dude who seemed to be out of the worst independent Japanese movie. Bad decorations, worse clothes… this dude was the incarnation of bad taste in every area.
"How long, Sensei! – exclaimed Gon with his usual radiant smile – they are two of my friends who have come from another continent! "
"Another continent? – He was astounded, initially – Ah! I think I understand! You're talking about that New World that was recently discovered! "
Exactly. – I interrupted – My name is Espedito, she is my friend Gracie."
We all sat down to form a sort of semicircle around the professor, while he brought out the door behind him a boy with shaved hair and in karate.
"Guys, he is Zushi, my best pupil." Said Wing pointing to the little boy.
"Osu!" he uttered, as a sort of hiccup. I did not notice until he began to "sobbing" to every sentence uttered by his master.
When I, armed with my kindness expressed with the villain in a soap opera's ways of doing, I pulled out of my purse an antipsychotic for hiccups.
"Do you need it?"
"I don't have the hiccups!" he answered. From there I realized that I should have listened that annoying noise for the whole duration of the course.
"To learn the way of the Nen, you must temper your mind and your spirit first of all..." Began to explain the master. Words that a guy like me, whose only thing that has been able to temper is his vacuum cleaner, should not listen. As he began to speak out on the Ten, Ren, Zetsu and Hatsu, Gracie and I began to take spasmodically notes to not let us escape even a single word, while Gon and Killua, who already knew everything, were relaxing and staring at us with sadistic satisfaction.
"So, to hide your presence, you need to close the Shoukos..." Churches Gracie.
"That's right!" replied the master.
"Okay, so far we're here. The problem is: how do I close these aura fountains? I don't even know where they are." I said.
"Now, it's time to practice. Zushi! " Called the master.
"Osu!"
"I swear to you, the next time he does that noise I'll get my hands on him." I whispered to Gracie.
"Now we're going to show you how Shouko works in the body..." He said, while the boy took off his robe by remaining in his underwear in front of everyone.
"What the fuck!" commented, disconcerted, Killua. "Where did you see it?" I answered him giggling.
"That's why we're in an apartment!" whispered Gracie. "Now you don't write any more?" inquired the Professor sarcastic.
"Focus on the root of the Aura..." He continued to illustrate, arousing the laughter between me and Gracie. "Root?!" We both laughed in unison, trying to keep a low tone of voice.
"One of the special techniques to learn, if you already handle those bases, is the Shu. An advanced version of the Ten that allows you to extend your aura to an object, which is considered as an extension of your body." specified the professor.
"Learned term to say: not even after married!" I ironized, receiving a strong fist on the shoulder by the albino. "Stop! You're embarrassing me!" he roared whispering.
"Oh, me?" I did, pointing Zushi still there, half naked. Meanwhile, Gracie and I continued to giggle more and more loudly, also infecting Gon that for a chuckle he got a fist from Killua.
"To the boys who are laughing, could you get control of yourselves? Thank you." Reproached the master, turned to us, dropping the silence.
After about half an hour, with the same absorbed gaze of which you have in front of a car accident, we were still following Professor Wing who explained to us the way in which Shouko should be opened.
"To open Shouko by yourself, you need a time that depends on your talents." He clarified.
"Then it will take me a lifetime..." I thought out loud.
"Or you could do it by external intervention."
Did it mean that there was hope even for someone like me to learn how to use it? I realized then that Gracie and I were the only ones in the room that we had not yet managed to open.
"See, Master. We do not have so much time, I need this power only for a mission… " I said, looking on the ground in a tender tone.
"Let's see what I can do... Sit on your feet!" he bade.
"Huh? Did you drink something bad?" I manifested, confused.
"Come on, let's go... You heard what I said! "
We stood up and placed ourselves in front of him, then he began to make strange gestures staring us in the eye. Suddenly, my body was shaken by a very strong sensation, never experienced before. It was as if something was coming out violently from my body. For a few seconds, I stopped seeing and heard a white noise in the background. When the sensation began to soften, I began to get lucid and understand what was going on.
"I think my spirit has just came." I exclaimed, sarcastic, making all the people laugh in the hall.
The master, apparently satisfied, finally made Zushi coat and dragged a small table with the wheels in front of us, on which there was a wine glass filled with water with a leaf left floating there.
"In this glass there is only water!" he exclaimed in a conquoted tone. I still don't understand what was so exciting about it.
"Espedito. Now, you will do the water test."
With the tail of the eye I could see Gon and Killua who were staring at us, interested in our outcome. Evidently, that test was very important, which put me in a strong fear of not overcoming it.
"Now, arrange your hands this way and concentrate to free your aura." ordered Wing.
I didn't know how I would have freed the aura, but I decided to follow the master's instructions. I rested my hands on the sides of the glass, concentrating on the water inside. Step by step, I felt the aura flow from my body, and I saw a slight movement in the water. Unexpectedly, the leaf caught fire, marveling even the professor and the others.
"You're a specialist... It's not a small thing. " Remarked the master's dazed.
"What would you say? What does that mean? "
"It means you're not part of any of the types we've mentioned before."
I looked around, in fact also Gon and Killua were left open-mouthed. I used to assume that I could not grab anything except some cheap power, instead I was part of a rare category, which was very much.
After the lesson – which ended up being a birth – I realized that it was still eight o'clock in the evening. "Guys, today is Saturday!" I realized.
"And then?" replied Killua, annoyed.
"Don't tell me you're going to go to sleep?" intervened Gracie.
"I think so, I feel like collapsing."
"I'm not sleepy!" exclaimed Gon.
"I'd like to take a stroll among the locals here, I've seen some really cute! Killua, do you really want to go to bed on a Saturday night? "I asked him, compassionate.
"A hunter should be worrying about Saturday night? – it tickled – thanks anyway, but no. I'm really sleepy. I'm going to get to Kurapika and Leorio. "
"Gon, do you want to come with us?" asked Gracie with a delicate tone and a smile to thirty-two teeth.
"That's all right with me! Come on, Killua!" begged the moor. The albino would not hear reasons:
"Go with them! You will join me later! "
"I think I'll come first to take a shower, what time do we meet?" inquired Gon.
"No later than half-past nine, we'll pass there with a cab." I said.
"Hey! Don't listen to him, Gon! It's okay if you're late, you make us a hooker and we'll pick you up!" assured Gracie, receiving a dirty look from me.