He knew he had run in with the wrong sort of crowd since day one, but there wasn't much he could do.
They welcomed him to the group without much fanfare, didn't ask about his past, and were willing to teach him magic. How could he say no?
He initially grasped the concept pretty well, and after a month of meditating - which was more like daydreaming - he could finally see it.
Magic - nen, they called it - could look like all sorts of things. Any colour, any density, and could be used to create, or be imbued into, any kind of object. So nen kind of looked like everything.
And it felt awesome.
He was so eager to experiment that he went without sleep until he mastered the basics and finally got the go-ahead from Andy to start working on his hatsu.
"You're an emitter, but I think you'll have a knack for enhancing and transmuting. Don't bother with anything too complex, like healing or time travel. That stuff's for specialists."
"Okay. Do you think I could shoot fireballs?"
"You could make your aura dense and strong and send it like a ball. As for fire... you'd need some experience first. How keen are you on burning yourself for months on end?"
"Not especially. So something like water would be easier?"
"Definitely."
"So how would I do it?"
"Just fuck around with water all the time. Swim, shower, bath, clean, listen to it, look at it. Gotta get pretty obsessed to transmute something. Same with conjuring."
"Huh. That doesn't sound too hard."
And it wasn't. It was peaceful, even.
He went swimming in random lakes wherever they travelled, he took showers and baths multiple times a day, his gut was always a little overfull with water. He bought a little waterfall ornament that moved water around infinitely. He dreamed of swimming in endless oceans, of standing under enormous waterfalls, of crying literal rivers.
"How's the hatsu going?" Jinsen asked one day.
"Nothing yet."
"Seriously? You've been at it for, like, six months."
"I know. I just don't get how I'm supposed to make it happen. I've been doing shit with water all the time and fucking around with nen and meditating. Nothing works!"
"Wait, you haven't tried going cold turkey?"
"What?"
"You're supposed to get used to it, then take it away."
"What? Are you serious?"
"Andy didn't tell you?"
"No, he didn't! That bastard!"
"Right, well, basically you gotta stop going for swims and shit."
"What, so I can't shower or drink, either?"
"I don't know, man. Just do it less often. Drink something that's not water."
And so he did.
He felt the wrongness in his gut. Months on end of swimming everyday for hours, suddenly stopped. He wanted to go swimming. He needed to.
They took away his waterfall ornament. Jinsen forced him to clean himself with wet cloths rather than shower. He drank milk.
It was unbearable.
One night, he lay crying in bed, pooling his tears in the palm of his hand, just to reassure himself that he wasn't without water. His emotions stirred his nen, and suddenly, his palm started overflowing, leaking onto his blankets.
He stayed up all night, filling buckets with water, knowing he was an emitter, not an enhancer, so it wasn't like the category test. He could still make it turn baby blue.
It was the beginning of his hatsu.
The whole group was proud. Less than a year of learning nen and he was already working outside of his category. They all slapped him on the back and had a few beers. It was nice.
Andy was an emitter and happy to teach him how to detach his nen.
"Alright, now you've got your bubble, you need to let the wind take it."
"What?"
"Your little ball of nen, imagine it's a bubble, and there's a breeze that's going to gently move it off your hand. Be careful, or it'll pop."
So he let the imaginary wind take his nen, and he watched as it flew into the distance.
"Huh. First try, huh? It went pretty far too. Alright, now imagine the wind is strong, and throw it this time too."
He did. It worked.
"Great! Now just transmute it into water first. You're a natural."
It was another month before he could spray water at will. Nothing more threatening than a hose, but definitely fun. He took to shaping his hands like finger guns, and having the water come out of the 'gun' like bullets. When pressed to name the ability, he went with 'Super Soaker'.
By the time he passed his twenty-eighth birthday, his super soaker ability could leave a decent bruise after a single burst, and he would never need to pay a water bill ever again.
At that point, the group started planning something, and stared at him when they thought he wasn't looking.
"Oi, Kien, you got a criminal record?" Hans asked him, out of the blue.
"Uh, no? Why?"
"You should take the hunter exam this year."
"What? The- why the hell would I do that?"
"You're good enough to pass, easy, and it pays really damn good."
"So? Why don't you go take it then?"
"Hunters were the ones that invented nen. They practically own it. You can get in a lot of trouble for teaching people that shouldn't know. Andy been teaching us even though he wasn't supposed to, so any of us could get in some shit for it. But they ain't gonna think twice about some good kid like you. They'll probably assume you learned it from the right people."
"Wait, but if they find out, we could all get in big trouble?"
"Maybe. Andy never said anything outright, but he don't want us pushing our luck. You, though, I bet he'd let you."
"What, so I can live the rest of my life being a hunter and doing jobs and shit?"
"Nah man, once you pass, you don't have to do anything. You can sell the licence for a bazillion dollars. It's totally legal."
"How do you know all of this?"
"Andy used to be a hunter, man."
"Wait, then where's all his money?"
"He gambled it, bro. Lost it all."
"What an idiot."
"Yeah, his head's on right now. Any money he sees now goes to looking after us. If you took the exam and got rich, you could help Andy out, y'know? Give back."
"I guess. You think he'd let me?"
"Go ask."
He did. Andy said yes.
He filled out an online application, received a confirmation email when he was approved, and three months later he was on his way to the exam.
After a series of confusing events, he caught an airship to Zaban City and made it to the exam site. He was given a numbered tag that read '43' and waited a few hours for the exam to start.
The first phase was just running, so he was fine. Had to shoot some weird monsters, though.
The second phase was cooking, which he utterly sucked at. Thank God they got a redo. Jumping in the ravine was pretty cool, and the egg was fucking delicious.
The tower was weird, and he got stuck with two strangers who refused to work with him until he showed off his super soaker ability. Scared into cooperation, they made it to the tower's base with a day to spare. The puzzles had been quite hard, but at least the fighting stuff was easy. All he had to do was shoot first.
The hunting on the island was a nightmare. He had no tracking skills, whatsoever, so he never ended up finding his target. He settled for beating the first three people he came across. At least, until the third person was a 12 year old boy. The boy talked to him a fair bit - which was weird, because who would trust anyone on that island - and then they went their separate ways. He got his last point and passed.
The tournament was brutal to watch. That kid he met earlier got absolutely tortured for hours before the other guy finally gave in. His own match was pretty quick. Shot the guy in the foot at full strength, aimed at his head and told him to give up. And he did. Luckily he got to pass when the other kid didn't want to fight him. Then some other dude was his brother? And he knew nen! Then the kid killed some old guy for no reason.
It was all a very dramatic, interesting experience. Regardless, he got his licence and happily rang Andy to share the good news.
"Hey, you," called the little archer guy he fought.
"What?" he asked. He wanted to go home already.
"During our fight, what did you do?" he asked, and it became evident he was favouring the foot Kien hadn't shot.
"None of your business," he responded, and left.
The group had an absolutely massive party when he got back. They screamed and sang and drank and ate. Kien got absolutely shit faced. It was the happiest day of his life.
The next morning, he woke up to nothing.
Everyone's tents were gone and all their stuff with them. He looked for a while before calling them, but the calls never went through. They had blocked his number. All of them. They ditched him.
It wasn't until he tried to clean up his own stuff that he realised why.
His hunter licence was gone.
"Those… mother… fuckers," he ground out between tears of crippling betrayal.
There was no chance of him finding them on his own, especially if they didn't want to be found. Even if he did, it was eight against one and they had known nen a lot longer than him. What was the point of trying to chase them?
He stayed there for a week while it all set in. Had any of it been real? The friendship, the comradery? Did they intend to use him from the very start? If he had sucked at nen, would they have ditched him immediately?
He couldn't say. All he knew was he was alone in the world, broke, and had no purpose. All he had was his nen.
Those things were what led him to heaven's arena. It was the first thing that came up when he searched 'money for fighting'. Good enough for him. He hitch-hiked his way there and signed up. Before the end of the week, he felt like he had purpose again.
"Should I try to reach the top floor? I wonder how rich I'd get. Maybe I could hire a hunter to track Andy and them down and kill them. They probably already sold the licence, though." He thought aloud to himself.
Then he ran into that kid again.
"Oh! It's you, from the hunter exam!" the boy chirped when he tried to pass by.
"Oh," he said, looking between the green boy and the white one. "You're the one that got the crap kicked out of him. And you're the one that killed the old guy," he said without a filter, and they both looked chided.
"Mah… I still passed! And Killua didn't want to do that."
"Sure. What're you kids doing here?"
"We're making money!" said the green one.
"And training," said the white one.
"Fair enough. I'm here for the money, too."
"What floor are you on? Do you think we'll get to fight you?"
"I'm on floor one-fifty. And I'll probably forfeit if that happens."
"What? Why?" the green one asked, seemingly disappointed.
"I don't wanna hurt a kid. At least, not an innocent one."
"So you'd fight me?" the white one asked.
"Nah, your brother fucked you up. I don't know what his nen abilities are, but he might have even made you kill that old guy," he explained, momentarily forgetting the first rule about nen; don't talk about nen.
"Nen?" the white one asked.
"Ah, shit. Your brother didn't teach you?"
"Teach me what?"
"Whatever, none of my business. Forget I said anything," he said, then promptly left to go hide in his room and berate himself.
Several days later he hit floor 200 and found out he couldn't make any more money.
"Wait, I won't get paid anymore? Are you serious?"
"Yes, sir. You fight now only for glory."
"Fucking hell," he cursed, and checked his bank account.
Just over 205 million jenny. He could live off that for a good while. Potentially for his whole life, if he was good with it, stayed at heaven's arena for the free accommodation, and died young.
"Can I go back to the start and earn money again?"
"If you refuse to sign up for a fight on the two hundredth floor for three months, you'll be dropped back to the start as if you were signing up for the first time. You can earn money again by fighting from floors one to one hundred and ninety nine, but if you refuse to sign up for a fight on the two hundredth floor again, you will be permanently banned from fighting in the arena."
"Huh." So he could double his money, but that's it. "So, I've got three whole months to think it over? I can't go back to the start now?"
"No, you will have to wait the full ninety days."
"Okay. I'll sleep on it, then. Thanks."
"Enjoy your stay."
At least his room was absolutely luxurious.
The next day, he wandered the hallways and ran into some weirdos. They were all moderately creepy, and seemed to think they could tell him what to do. When they randomly started using malicious nen, his ten cloaked him reflexively, and they blanched.
"Ah, so you already know nen," the one in the wheelchair murmured.
"No shit. Try that again and we're gonna have a problem."
"Oh, wouldn't you like to settle it in the arena, though? Sign up to fight me, why don't you?"
"Not interested," he said, and went to the food court.
Those damn kids were there.
"Hey, you. Tell me what nen is," the angry one demanded.
"Nah, buzz off," he deflected, making his way towards the curry shop.
"My brother knows about it, and so do other people here. I'm gonna learn either way, just tell me."
"Fine. I'll tell you for two hundred mil," he said, only half joking.
"You greedy bastard," the boy snapped.
"I'll be over there, enjoying my lunch. Don't bother me."
"Oi, so there's ten, ren, zetsu and hatsu. What do they mean?"
"Two hundred mil."
"Ugh! Let's go, Gon."
Finally, peace.