Chapter 24: The x Rhythm x Echo

January 12, 1999

Something felt amiss as Levi boarded the ship to Zevil Island with 45 other applicants.

Only when the ship was out in the middle of the sea, with Levi sitting in a corner of it, did he realise that.. he had left Levi-the-cat on the airship.

Panic ran across his face. He immediately stood up and ran to the lady who had given an unnaturally optimistic speech earlier.

"Levi is still on the ship. He's my cat friend!" Levi told the lady.

"Oh! The Chairman mentioned something about that. You'll be able to meet him at the end of the exam. He's not a combative type so it would be dangerous for him. Don't worry though, he'll be in good hands." The lady smiled at him.

Levi accepted it. He, however, still made an internal oath to destroy the hunter association if they would mistreat Levi even a little bit.

Still feeling down, he decided to lighten up his mood by talking to his new friends.

Gon and Killua were sitting side by side talking. Levi timidly approached them, hoping they won't be offended by his interference.

"Hey!" Gon beamed. The light in his eyes made all of Levi's awkwardness vanish.

He smiled back and sat down in front of the grinning duo.

"So, who is your target?" Killua asked, his eyes glinting mischievously.

"Number 50... the one with the high collar."

The two gasped.

Killua sighed. "Tough luck. Both of you got the short end of the stick. By the way, would you, by any chance know who number 199 is?"

"No, but I'm sure it's not one of the er... intimidating ones. Wait, what do you mean by the short end of the stick?"

"Gon got Hisoka as his target and you got that gloomy guy. Pretty sure both of them are full-time sadists."

Gon and Levi gulped. Killua just sighed again.

January 12, 1999 (Zevil Island: Day 1)

An hour of icebreakers between the trio later, they arrived at the island. They were supposed to leave in intervals of two minutes based on the order in which they passed the third phase.

Levi said a nervous goodbye to the two as he disembarked the ship. He quickly ran to the woods for cover. Once he was sure no applicant was around, he activated his flawless Zetsu for protection.

He decided to start by scaling the island. If he needed any hope of finding Feitan he had to know his surroundings first.

The scenery was beautiful. Levi longed to enjoy it. Food and water wasn't going to be a problem. There were plenty of trees, bushes and even animals around to supply food; and streams and rivers to supply fresh water.

It was sunset when Levi decided to take a break. He chose a tall and dense tree to camp on for the night.

A plan... he needed a plan...

Levi closed his eyes. He wasn't dumb enough to fall asleep in such a dangerous situation; he was only focusing more on his surroundings. He longed to use En but that could make the others in the vicinity sense his aura and result in giving away his location. He wanted to keep a low profile for the start at least.

There was another thing that nagged at the corner of his mind. Someone had been tailing him ever since his arrival on the island. The problem was that that someone was definitely a nen-user as they were using Zetsu and were not an applicant.

Levi finally got tired of ignoring the presence and sighed, "Come out already."

No answer.

Levi opened his eyes. A single movement and he could take down his pursuer, however, he needed information first.

In the blink of an eye, he was behind them, his nails sharper than knives, pointed at their nape. The they was a she. That she was wearing a black suit and had her brown hair in a ponytail so perfect that it could give Machi a run for her money.

"Talk."

The lady remained stoic on the outside but Levi could sense the fear in the her aura.

"I'm an examiner. I'm supposed to observe you."

"Hmm... fair enough." Levi made his nails blunt again and jumped back onto the tree as if nothing had happened.

The lady took a deep breath. The Chairman was right. Despite his disappointing performance in the third exam, the kid was extremely dangerous. She was sure that the intensity of his aura alone could kill someone was easily, if not drive them completely insane.

She shuddered to think what could have happened if he wouldn't have been holding back his bloodlust.

January 13, 1999 (Zevil Island: Day 2)

Levi yawned as he jumped down from the tree. The night had been tiring as he had spent all of it planning.

At least, he had some idea of what he could do now.

He decided to start by returning to a grass field he had crossed earlier. He found an unconscious man lying there with a cut on his shoulder. Levi narrowed his eyes. The weapon must have been a drugged arrow.

No time for extra thinking, he told himself, despite feeling sorry for the guy.

He found a nice covered spot and dug a small hole. He decided to activate his En for just a split second to monitor the surroundings. No one there for miles around except the ponytail lady. Good. He buried his badge in it and covered it back up so that the patch of soil looked as ordinary as ever.

Alright, time for the next step, he told himself.

He had concocted multiple strategies in his head during the night. The goal was to get Feitan's badge without revealing his own ability.

Why the extra ability thing? He just didn't feel comfortable enough yet with letting them know about his ability. He was only going to use it in case of everything else failing.

He had 6 days left on Zevil Island. He wasn't sure how long it was going to take him to learn a new technique but he hoped it won't take more than 3 days.

His mind flashed back to the afterimages thing called the 'Rhythm Echo' Killua had done. He had seen it once before and knew that it was popular among professional assassins. Once upon a time... he had tried to learn it but had failed miserably and had only gotten as far as the Silent Gaits before...

A shudder danced down his spine. He shook his head, wanting to clear his mind. He couldn't afford to dwell on the past-- not when he had more important things to do.

Levi reached a small clearing in the midst of a forest. It was away from the mountains so there were no high spots for miles around. The thick and hard-to-see-through trees provided a great cover as well.

He took a deep breath. He didn't need to activate his aura and turn off his Zetsu as the technique was one that didn't use nen. That, however, didn't mean that it didn't use any aura at all. It was a bit of a debatable topic but yes, it did.

Now, what was the difference between using nen and using only aura? Well, simply put if it used nen only an awakened person could do it but if it only used aura than even a non-awakened person could.

The Rhythm Echo was a manipulation of aura upto some extent, but it didn't require that much of it. After all, they were just after images and not something like clones. That, however, didn't reduce its usability. It was actually a really practical technique as it could create diversions with barely any aura required. Assassins value their work a lot but are extremely cautious people. It would make sense for them to invent an ability to make their work more efficient.

There were two steps to learn the Rhythm Echo. The first one was to learn the Silent Gaits that Levi had already mastered. It was a not-so-simple technique that basically minimised the sound of their footsteps-- another carefully crafted assassins technique that allowed them to tail their targets soundlessly.

It was also closely linked with Zetsu, the main difference being that while Zetsu masked one's entire presence, the Silent Gaits technique only masked their noises.

In other words, Silent Gaits only managed to mask the noises made by their movement, while Zetsu could mask their burning aura along with minute noises like their heart beat that an experienced-enough person could catch on.

Simply put, Zetsu was an advanced version of the Silent Gaits

It had been a while since he had last used it, so he decided to practice it for a while. He circled the clearing a couple times, still keeping a wary eye on his surroundings.

The first step was to blur the difference between the real person and the illusions. The next step was the harder one, he had to learn how to manipulate his aura to make those afterimages.

He took a few deep breaths, calmly assessing the state of his aura. He had to leave just enough of his aura behind as he walked to make it seem like he was still there. In other words, the afterimages were just traces of one's aura, their very presence that made then only seem like they were there.

Levi spent the rest of the day figuring the amount of aura to leave behind and how to do so without switching off his Zetsu. It was a bit tricky at first but as he was a nen-user now it was a lot easier than his previous attempt.

At the end of the day, sitting on the tallest tree around, he smiled at the setting sun. He had mastered the technique he had been longing to for so long.

Unfortunately, that wasn't all he was supposed to do, the next day his preparation had be tested. He was finally going to confront Feitan and get his badge.