Chapter Thirty Eight
The next morning Gon's head was covered in bumps. They dug throughout the day again, and Bisky hung even larger rocks above them, resulting in bigger, if slightly less, bumps for Gon. The next day, they hit a rock too hard to dig out.
"I can probably punch it out with my Nen." Gon mused, making Ayami pause.
"Wait! Watch this!" Ayami stepped forward eagerly, and extended her aura to her shovel before driving it into the rock easily.
"Wow Ayami! How'd you do that?" Gon asked.
"My dad taught me, think of the shovel as an extension of your body, and surround it with your Nen. I think it's called Shu, it makes digging way easier!"
"And you're just telling us now!" Killua whined as Gon started digging into the rock.
"Hey! I was six when dad started showing me the advanced techniques! Do you know how much he lectures! I can't remember everything!" They continued digging, with Killua and Ayami sniping at each other while Gon happily ignored them. Shu did make them faster, and it wasn't long after that they finally made it to Masadora
"All right!" Killua cheered as they broke through the last boulder.
"We made it!" Ayami laughed.
"Good job!" Gon grinned. "I think we did five kilometers today!"
"At first I thought it'd take years, but with our pace." Killua beamed.
"Hello Masadora!" They cheered together, standing at the city gates.
"Okay! Back to the same place again!" Bisky interrupted, sweet smile hiding the amused glint in her eye.
"Again?"
"Really?"
"Get some new tricks, lady!" Bisky just grinned, and Ayami groaned, stretching her arms above her head. "Sadist." She accused.
Back where they began, Bisky had them take on each of the monsters they'd encountered their first night here, working on their combat analysis skills. They each took down the puffball, giant lizard, and the bubble horse. According to Bisky, Killua was the best with analysis and physical strength, and Gon was best at concentration and recovery speed. Ayami was great with strategy and innovation, using everything around her, and raw speed. After they'd defeated all the monsters, Bisky started teaching them about defense. She showed them Ko, the technique Gon frequently used, and Ken, the best way to defend yourself against Ko. Bisky also made them build their endurance, shrouding themselves with their Nen for thirty consecutive minutes. As much as Ayami whined, she was a good teacher, and she was learning a lot.
"Good! That was thirty minutes! Over the last month, you've gotten much stronger." Bisky said cheerfully, lifting a finger.
"The number three!" Killua, Gon, and Ayami yelled together.
"Good! Gon, you were the slowest. Drop and give me a thousand push ups."
"Damn!" Gon cursed, getting started.
"I can't believe it's been a month already." Ayami mused.
"We've been pretty busy." Killua shrugged.
"I hope Dad's doing okay."
"Your dad's tough Aya, he was able to take on mine. I'm sure he's fine." Killua reassured, squeezing her shoulder.
"Okay, today we'll begin actual combat training." Bisky clapped her hands as Gon finished his push ups. "Ken." The three kids got into their stances and shrouded herself in Ken. "In this state, your attack power is at fifty percent, and your defensive power is the same. If you were to fight each other in this state, you wouldn't do much more damage than usual. So what do you do?"
"Use Ko!" Gon suggested.
"No, baka!" Bisky yelled. "What if he hits you where you're not using Ko?"
"Use Gyo!" Killua and Ayami said together.
"Correct." Bisky agreed, making them smile smugly at Gon, who stuck his tongue out.
"From your current neutral state, at the moment of attack, change the offensive and defensive power of your right fist to seventy percent, and leave the rest of your body at thirty. Using Gyo, shift your offensive and defensive power to suit your situation. This is called Ryu!" Bisky explained as she demonstrated. "Lets begin! Shift your power in your right hand to seventy, and the rest of your body to thirty!" After a few moments of struggling, they managed to do it, and Bisky nodded. "Left foot to eighty, your body to twenty! Head to sixty, body to forty!" She drilled them for what felt like hours, until they were all panting tiredly. "Do this for thirty minutes, three times a day. Add it to your current training regimen. Also, we'll begin sparring now."
Bisky had the trio spar each other and herself extremely slowly, and over the next two weeks as they got better at matching their Ken against their opponents Ko, the three of them started increasing their speed until they were back at their normal pace. Bisky continued to push them until they were faster than they'd ever been.
"Alright, that's enough! Let's take a break!" Bisky called, knocking Ayami flat once again. Killua and Gon, who were sparing a few feet away, stopped and bowed to each other as Bisky helped Ayami up.
"It's been two weeks. You've made a lot of progress. It appears you're ready for the final phase."
"The final phase?" Ayami asked, tilting her ead to the side.
"Yes, you will begin training in the individual categories." Bisky said, lifting a finger.
"Three!"
"Bingo! A tie! You're free to train solely in your own category. In the case of an Enhancer, You'd want to focus on your Enhancer skills, while training in the nearby categories of Transmitter and Emitter in a balanced fashion, that way you'll master your own category faster."
"Nine!"
"Bingo, another tie!"
"Good job guys!" Gon cheered.
"Same to you!" Killua grinned.
"Let's begin." Bisky continued. "We'll start with training in the Enhancer category. Exercise level one is breaking rocks." Bisky gathered some nearby rocks and placed one on a small boulder, holding one in her hand and shrouding it in her aura. She slammed it into another rock, shattering it. "Break them like this. Smash a thousand with a single stone in a day, and you clear the level. Begin!" It sounded simple, but it was actually pretty tough. Eventually their stones crumbled, and Bisky declared the exercise over for the day.
"Let's do a Transmitter exercise next!" Killua said eagerly.
"Now, now, don't be hasty. You're only allowed to train in one category a day."
"Six!"
"Correct. A tie!"
"Damn." Killua grumbled.
"We keep tieing lately." Gon sighed.
"It just shows that you've grown accustomed to using Gyo."
"Yeah, but it's not fun if there's no winner." Ayami muttered.
"Okay, we'll decide with rock, paper, scissors!" Gon suggested.
"Loser does a thousand push ups!" Killua agreed. Ayami lost to both of them, and dropped down to get started, grumbling the whole time. Bisky told them the story of rock paper scissors while Ayami finished her push ups, and Killua managed to insult Bisky again, who sent him flying. Gon seemed inspired by Bisky's story, and decided to incorporate rock, paper, scissors into his special technique. When he had it all figured out, he gathered them to show off.
"First comes rock! Rock, paper, rock!" Gon channeled an enormous amount of power into his punch, shattering a boulder the size of a building easily.
"Woah!" Killua gasped.
"Nice job Gon!" Ayami cheared,
"I see." Bisky nodded, impressed.
"Here comes the next one! First comes rock! Rock, paper, paper!" Gon threw his palm out but nothing happened. "Bisky, how do I make my Nen fly?" Gon asked with a smile, making Ayami laugh.
"Train more!" Bisky snapped.
"So paper is an Emitter technique?"
"Yep, and scissors is a transmuter technique. I wanna be able to cut through rock." Gon explained.
"I understand. That's a reasonable fighting technique." Bisky commented.
"You know how it takes time to build the Nen in my fist? I was trying to think of a good way to spend that time. And when you were talking about rock paper scissors, it hit me! Because I like rock, paper, scissors!"
"Because you always win!" Ayami laughed. Killua nodded. Gon almost always won with rock, paper, scissors.
"Trusting your instincts is important. Gut feelings play a big part in techniques that require multiple Nen categories. The key is that it must feel right to you." Killua decided it was his turn to share and cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention. He created a small charge between his fingertips and made it grow, electricity crackling wildly between his hands.
"This is all I can manage right now, but if I charge it up, it's pretty strong." Killua explained.
"That's awesome, Killua! You're like an electric eel!" Gon yelled excitedly.
"That's a horrible comparison!" Killua snapped. Bisky stared at him, shocked. 'He can already change his aura into electricity at such a young age?' Bisky thought to herself. 'Frightening, and tragic. His childhood must've been a living hell. It's a miracle that he can even smile today.'
"Kil! That's awesome! We could team up for fights!" Ayami gushed.
"What do you mean?" Killua asked.
"Water is a conductor for electricity! If we were facing a group, I could flood the area they were in, and you could send in a surge of electricity! Then-"
"Kaboom! They get blown sky high!" Killua laughed, high fiving her.
"Hey! I wanna be a part of this!" Gon whined.
"Well, we don't wanna get shocked as well, so you could use rock on the ground and make them fall into a crater so I can fill it with water, Killua can charge up and-"
"KABOOM!" They yelled together, bursting into laughter.
"You work with water, Ayami?" Bisky asked. "What exactly do you do with it?"
"Everything." Ayami shrugged.
"Everything?" Biskey asked, tilting her head to the side.
"Mhm. I can cut with it, freeze it, boil it, I can even fly on it, but that's hard. It's pretty versatile."
"That's… very unique. Most people have specific attacks for different situations, why don't you?"
"I think it's because I started so young. I started developing my Hatsu when I was about six, so I didn't have a specific attack or use for it, my only idea was 'water'. You should have seen my family whenI tried to explain what I wanted to do, I've never seen them more confused." Ayami laughed.
"Daddy! Daddy! Guess what!" Ayami yelled, running into their current base with Machi, Uvo, Franklin, and Phinks trailing behind her.. Chrollo glanced up from his heavy tome and smiled, lifting an arm to catch her as she dove for him.
"Hello Aya. How was your time at the beach?" He asked, fixing his six year olds hair.
"It was fun! Phinks and Uvo kept throwing me really high in the air! I almost touched the sky! Then Franklin said Uvo threw me highest so they started fighting, and Machi took me away cuz they were saying bad words and we saw a turtle and some fishies and there was a shark so we had to get out of the water so Uvo could try to beat it up and I tried to bury Franklin in the sand but he was to big and Machi dunked-"
"Slow down Ayami, breath." Chrollo interrupted his daughters excited rambling.
"But Daddy, I didn't tell you what happened!"
"What happened Ayami?"
"I found my Hatsu!"
"You… found your Hatsu?" Chrollo repeated, confused.
"Mmhm! Water!"
"Water?"
"Yep!" Chrollo glanced at his Troupe for help, but they seemed just as lost.
"...What will you do with the water?"
"Steal stuff!"
"Yes, but how, Ayami?"
"With the water!"
"Yes darling, with the water, but how?"
"I dunno yet, it depends on what we're stealing. You're the boss, you make the plans Daddy, 'member?"
"Yes Ayami, but-"
"How are you going to use the water when you steal, Ayami?" Machi tried.
"I'll fly and beat people up, Machi-nee!"
"Yes, Aya, but how?"
"With the water!"
"Could you demonstrate Ayami?" Bisky asked.
"Sure." She waved a hand, pulling the water from their canteens and gathering it into a large orb. "I can heat it-" She clenched her hand into a fist and the water heated into a fast boil. "-or freeze it." She flexed her hand and it hardened into ice. She made a fist again, heating it until it turned back to water. "It's a lot more difficult, but when I have more, I can make a platform that I can float on. Water slicers are my favorite but I can also do this-" She sent the orb rushing toward Killua, forcing him back several feet and soaking him.
"Aya!" Killua whined as Gon laughed.
"That's pretty impressive, Ayami." Bisky complimented.
"It does have its drawbacks. I'm not a conjurer, so I can't make my own water, I have to use what's around me. I can pull water out of plants, but in dry areas like this there's not much I can do."
"Still, I like it. It's simple, but very versatile."
"And I can do this!" She made the orb hover over Gon and Killua and dropped it, soaking them both. Killua growled and tackled her, and eventually dragged Gon into it. Bisky stared as they wrestled, rolling across the floor and trying to pin each other before slowly smiling. They made a great team.