Raphael and Gon continue their training.

A\N: I can't believe I made a mistake when I first posted this chapter and didn't realise until the reread the start of both chapter 27 and this one when I originally posted it. Apologises until now.

Gon came to an eventual stop, a six right at his fingertip. It didn't feel right to leave Abegane to his fate. They should've helped him in some way. Maybe there was a spell card, something to stop the bomb from going off.

"This doesn't feel right…"

Raphael and Bisky were forced to stop, the pair looking at the boy refusing to make another step. What Abegane said was still weighing heavily on his mind, "I think we should drop by their base real fast."

"They already ran out of time."

Raphael held up his hand, "Book. Even IF some of them still have time, if we were to teleport to them, they could explode right in our face. But on the off chance, Genthru disarmed all the bombs…" He searched through the list of names. Many were greyed out. Just how many lives did that man end in a single attack?

Or were they still alive? They merely left the game because they felt disheartened from having to hand all their cards over after all that hard work.

Nickes and a few others were among the growing list of names. He recognised some of the players he'd fought in the past, some he barely knew.

As his eyes scanned through the list, he saw one still lit up. Abegane. How was he still alive? Raphael looked up to voice his concern. But Bisky shut him off abruptly "The man never told us where their base was. We'll be searching for a while."

"Hey-"

"And even if we did know, we don't have a spell card that could take us there."

"Well, I do…"

"One that could take us all there?"

"Yes. An Accompany, because it's the one card I always get over Returns. But now that I'm with you guys, I wouldn't be surprised if I only get Returns. Anyways, you need to see this." Raphael showed his list of players to Bisky.

The player Abegane was still in the game.

Gon was about to jog up to them, to see what they were looking at. However, Bisky had other plans. She whispered her demand "Close it." It was clear she didn't want the boy to know this detail. For whatever purpose, he couldn't fathom.

"Book."

Gon whined from being left out of the conversation.

Bisky's eyes met the player, mentally telling him to remain quiet about that detail. If Abegane was still alive in the game, there must be a reason why. Maybe he has an ability that could be useful for them later. Spoiling that secret could ruin their chances.

Especially, once Genthru realises someone survived the mass slaughter. Someone, who was also telling others who the Bombers were, and their ability.

Including, how to avoid it…

"Did… did some of them survive the explosion?"

"No." Bisky offered a frown, "I saw the list of offline players. There was a lot." Her gaze met Raphael's once more for a second, "I think it's in our best interest to avoid the situation. If Genthru catches us snooping around, it could end badly for us. The Bomber was strong enough to place bombs on all his targets without anyone noticing. He wouldn't make a mistake… especially one that would leave a player alive."

Gon was destroyed by the news. There wasn't anything they could do. Even if one of them survived, Genthru would've made sure they didn't live long enough to tell any tales.

Abegane was alive. If he's smart, he'll hide away and keep a low profile. If the bomb was still on him but was somehow being kept in stasis, he'd still need help to get it removed. They could do that, provided they can beat Genthru up and bind him.

"However…" Bisky drew the boy's attention once more, "If we continue to play this game, we'll probably run into the Bomber."

"Probably…?" Raphael frowned, "We will have to fight him. He has Angel's Breath, the ONLY copy in the game. Unless we can steal or destroy it, we will not be able to beat the game without that card."

"Exactly. Which is why…" Bisky smiled, "We'll need spell cards. Let's go to Masadora and sell our monster cards. The sooner we do that, the quicker we can buy spell cards."

Gon's smile grew at the news, "Yeah!"

"I could use one of my Accompany cards?"

"Nope, we're running. That means You should still be practising your Transmutation."

The boys returned to their assigned task.

Raphael had no idea what Bisky was thinking about Abegane. This was probably a distraction. But what she said is true… they do need spell cards. Not just to beat the game, but if they were going to have a chance of removing a copy of Angel's Breath.

"~"

Night was starting to creep up on them, the orange hue of the sky signifying that it was in the early evening. Their run was quiet, except for the low sounds crunching of dirt and gravel beneath their feet.

They should reach Masadora in about thirty minutes if they manage to keep their pace. Bisky didn't want them bolting across the game to reach the city as quickly as possible. She initially told the lie that she didn't want to draw attention to them. But the boys knew better, it was to keep them distracted with a mildly mundane task.

"Hey Bisky…"

"Hmm?"

"How long do you think it'll take me to master my special technique?"

"Huh?" Why would he ask this now of all times? He was just getting into the advanced techniques, training in multiple categories to further develop his skills. It could be days… months… years before he'd master his skills. But mastering it is one thing. Building a foundation towards his ideal technique is what mattered.

Looking at Raphael for example. He had two robust skills. They weren't perfect, but they met his current needs. She'll need to voice this with Gon "You're just starting to develop your Nen. It's hard to predict when your power and speed will peak."

"Oh…"

"Take, for example, Raphael. He has Mirage and Blash Bang. Are they perfect? No."

"Hey-"

"Do they meet his needs? Yes. There's always room for improvement. Mastering your Rock-Paper-Scissors might never happen. Your ideals could change. Your talents could improve, taking those talents in a completely different direction. These are things that we'll always be thinking about in the future."

"For example," Bisky held up a finger, "Your rock would be strong considering it's reliant on your Enhancement category. But you could also, be leaning towards Emitter or Transmutation as well. Maybe you never learn to make your aura fly like you want it to do. Paper could end up just being an explosive slap that knocks people away. Maybe you could be leaning towards Transmutation, meaning your scissors will always be stronger than your Paper. An attack with practice, that could learn to cut through any material. Even ones…" The older woman cracked a smirk, "that wouldn't normally be able to be cut through. These are things that can change over time. You shouldn't be worried about mastering anything at this stage."

"Osu!"

"But it shouldn't take too long before you get the form down."

"Really? How long?"

"Hmm…" Bisky tried to calculate a timeline. It was impossible to gauge at this point, "Hopefully, you'll have it ready by the time Killua returns. We'll just have to start practising."

Gon found himself smiling at the news. He can't wait for that to happen, to show his best friend an ability he developed from scratch. It may not be as cool as generating electricity from his fingertips, but it'll be his own, cool ability "Yeah! I can't wait to show Killua my new technique!"

"~"

Masadora tends to cycle through most if not all the players since it's the only city where you can buy spell cards. Given that a ton of players have gone offline from Genthru's act, there would likely be a lot more spell cards to go around.

Right on cue, the card shop owner lit up when the trio walked in "You three are lucky! We just received a huge shipment of spell cards."

It looks like Bisky trying to hide what happened backfired.

Gon's expression deflated from the news. All those players did end up dying. There's nothing he can do about that. All they can do is focus on the future. To make sure Genthru doesn't beat the game.

Raphael gathered the Jenny cards they collected from their recent trade, stacking them on top of the glass counter. With a smile, he redirected the spell card trader's attention "We'd like to buy thirty packets of spell cards."

"Certainly!" Removing the Jenny cards, she bent down to grab three boxes from under the counter, placing them on top of the counter. Opening the cases, she removed them in stacks of five, counting them as she went along.

Once they were neatly stacked, she slid them across "Here you go, thirty packets."

"Thanks. Now let's test our luck."

"~"

Raphael frowns after opening his last packet. He has a nice, well-rounded deck to go on the offence. Seeing as Gon wouldn't want to go around stealing cards after what Genthru did, he was shit out of luck.

At least he didn't get only Return cards though. He got at least two Accompany cards. But four Returns, one Magnetism and one Drift.

The rest were a combination of mostly Steal, Mug, Fake and Copy. Not even a rare card like Eye of God or Holy Water. He would've liked it if he got one of those rarer cards. If they could get a Compromise, that would work in their favour. Provided that card could bypass Genthru's Fortress, he could effectively destroy one of the Bomber's Angel Breaths. However, before they do that, they'll need to make sure someone else has the Angel Breath voucher.

Destroying that card without the voucher's failsafe would be a waste of an extremely useful card.

Raphael let out a huge sigh. Looks like his cards were going to be absolutely, useless for their playthrough of the game, considering Gon wouldn't want to go on a thieving rampage "Well, I'm bust. Got a great deck to go stealing though…"

"We're not going to steal cards! Not after…" The boy paused, frowning for a moment "I'm not going to be like Genthru."

"Well, you try telling that to my bad RNG roll."

"RNG?"

"Random number generator. Think of it as a luck-base system, one where you can pull useful or terrible cards. I got the worst pull…" Raphael offered a smirk, lightly joking about his bad pull, "In fact, my luck is so bad, I could start a war and finish it. Ooh, a Levy. Make that, two wars."

"Raphael…"

"I'm kidding. I'll sell them and do a re-pull. No biggie. I have plenty of Jenny cards remaining. So, what did you guys get?" Raphael peeked at Gon's cards, "Oh, you got a few nice cards. A Leave and Blackout Curtain."

Bisky was startled when she turned a page, her eyes landing on a single card, "Look."

Raphael's eyes landed on the card she was pointing at.

"An S-Rank?"

"Oh, that's a nice pull, Bisky. Fortress, it's kind of useless since we've got a Paladin's Necklace."

"There can only be ten of them in the whole game?"

"Technically, more. If someone uses these to protect their cards, you can have an infinite amount. Otherwise, yes. Only ten can exist across all books at a time."

"Wow… so is it a good card if you don't have a Paladin's Necklace?"

"Extremely. Paladin's Necklace only drops once a year. Actually, that tournament is coming up soon in one of Antokiba's major monthly events. We should grab one to make a couple of copies. Gon should have one if he's going to be a group leader."

"I thought you'd be the leader…" He gave a weak smile, "Since you know more about this game."

"Sure, I guess. But still, it's good to carry two to three necklaces. That way you can spread the rarer cards to multiple players rather than making the one player who has the necklace keep them. It's also better to shuffle our pulls around so that we have a nice selection of spells to use. It's no good for one person to have all the defence spells if the person being attacked is the one without it."

The two gave a nod at the information, Bisky piping up once more "Should we keep Fortress or sell it?"

"Keep it. It could come in handy later for a trade. Some players would steal for a card like this. Otherwise, let's shuffle our spells around. Gimme your Mugs and Thief cards, I'll sell those then we'll do a second pull. From there we should leave Masadora to do a proper shuffle."

The two gave a nod.

"~"

The next day Gon and Bisky got to work. Gon still needed to create a basis for his technique. The best way to do that was through intense practice.

While everyone tended to be different when it came to how they wanted their abilities to work, the progress to creating them was similar. Through visualisation, and a ton of practice. There was mental theory crafting, but seeing as Gon would snap in twine if he had to think about it too much, visualisation along with practice was the best method.

Bisky's plan for him was simple. From Ken, he would shift to Ko. Once he's got that down, it's all about repetition till it becomes instinct.

After that, it'll be all about practising till he can use Ryu and a form of Ko simultaneously. That version of Ko, being his new technique 'Rock'.

After a few hours, Bisky introduced a new category training method, "We've done Enhancement and Transmutation. As much as we should do Emitter next, I want to leave that for when we're about to help Gon practice Paper. So, for now, let's focus on one of Raphael's side categories. Manipulation."

Bisky pulled a card from her book "Gain." A board game dropped into her palm. It was Checkers, a simple game with easy-to-understand rules "Gon and Raphael, I assume you know how to play Checkers?"

"I played this with my dad a couple of times."

"Same, with Mito though. I was never that really interested in it though…"

"That's fine. It's not about winning or losing." She moved to set up the board between the boys, "It's simple. Using your aura, like you extended during Transmutation training, you'll be doing something similar for this game." Bisky's aura extended to a single piece, wrapping it with aura. Without moving her finger, the piece moves diagonally.

Gon got excited, "That's cool." The boy tried to replicate the movement, but the piece barely budged a millimetre, "Aww…"

"Gon it's all about solidifying your aura and controlling the movement of the piece." Bisky moved the piece back into its original position. With the board reset they'll be able to start from scratch "I don't expect you to move the pieces like I did. You can start by hovering your finger above the piece by a few millimetres. Practice by moving the piece along with your finger. After a couple of days with this training, you should be able to move them from further away. Begin."

Gon hovered his finger from above the piece, the piece slowly inching forward. Once it was in the middle of its new spot, Gon panted heavily. It took a lot of effort to move.

Raphael's finger hovered a little higher than Gon's did, moving his piece along without as much effort.

"That's not fair…"

"I have practice with Mirage, controlling a tiny inanimate object is a lot easier than a person-sized Nen creature. Do you want some pointers?"

Gon nodded furiously.

Bisky smiled as the two worked together to play a board game. Even if one of the boys lost, neither of them would be upset. It's all about having fun and practising for them. But she did notice something a little strange with the way Raphael moved his piece. His aura was black, the same consistency as his Mirage.

Although, there wasn't a recreation of the Mirage between his fingertip and the piece. It might be just a byproduct of the ability, like a ghostly haze considering both are using a form of manipulation. If it does become a problem, she'll have to talk with Raphael but until then, she'll ignore this non-issue.

"~"

It had been two days since Gon had begun training. Every time Gon shifted from Ken to Ko, there would be a sizable ball of orange aura surrounding his fist. Gon's visualisation was starting to pay off. Just a few more days from now he wouldn't need to use Ko. Rock will be second nature to him "You're making steady progress. You're on track to have your special technique ready."

Once he's got that, training Paper will be best with Raphael's guidance. He'll be able to help Gon by showing him how to detach the aura from his body.

While Blash Bang was all about the action of throwing aura, shooting it wasn't going to be different in terms of actions.

Gon gave a nod, looking around the tranquil forest. There was nothing for miles, except for trees and the few Nen monsters that would come and go as they pleased, "It's very peaceful here Raphael."

"The beauty of knowing good farming spots. Players tend to avoid difficult areas. It also helps that we have a Blackout Curtain, curtsy of one of your pulls."

"But is it wise to be in the middle of the forest?"

Raphael looked towards Gon, "This forest, yes. The pixies will deter the players. Very few people are willing to farm here for Jenny. They always go north of Masadora, west of Antokiba or south of Rubicuta. That's the easiest way for players to make Jenny so that they can buy more spell cards. While monsters here would be able to buy a pack or two per capture, there are too many effects to worry about. They'll rather waste hours punching goblins, trolls, ogres, and bandits than have to worry about being put to sleep or paralysed."

"Right…"

Bisky agreed with Raphael's suggestion. Being in an area that's considered normally difficult, while still being easy for them was a good deterrent to them being attacked "Blackout Curtain is a very useful card to have. Even if one person manages to sneak up on us, we'll block their first steal."

"Don't forget it blocks Fluoroscopy as well. But with my cape, even if they do manage to spy on one of your Books, they won't see our rarer cards."

"Not that we should be worried." Bisky redirected their attention. They may have spell cards, but that doesn't mean they should be playing the game, nor should be worried about being attacked. They should continue to focus on training, "Just continue training hard."

"Osu!"

"~"

Now begins the fun part, the test to see if Gon was compatible with what he wanted to do initially. The training was relatively simple. Much like Manipulation and Transmutation, he had to extend his aura past his finger. Generating a small ball of aura above his fingertip, he had to maintain its shape for at least one minute.

Once he can do this, in theory, he should be able to shoot aura from his palm. Although the difficulty between both tasks is exponentially harder.

Given Raphael's skill, Bisky had to get creative for the boy. He could already lob mass balls of aura across long distances. So now his task is much simpler. He must maintain a three-inch ball of aura on the tip of his finger for five minutes. After the timer, he must reduce his ball to the size of Gon's before releasing it. Holding an extension of that much aura should be harder for him, with the added difficulty of having to reduce the size before its release. It gave Raphael a little bit of an extra challenge.

She watched the pair bond over the task, Raphael showing Gon how he does it. The aura he emits extends from his finger like a drop of water. It slowly expands from there as though he were filling a balloon. From here the tip was pinched off, focusing on maintaining its circular shape.

Gon tried it the first time, the bubble popping before he could even shape the ball. When the ball pops, Raphael bursts into laughter, Gon letting out an exasperated whine soon after. It was funny at the expense of someone's failure, but the face Gon made right as it popped was too funny.

Raphael merely coaxes the boy to try again, the two getting into a comfortable rhythm. It didn't matter how many times they failed the first part; it was all about the second part of the test.

Aura flowed comfortably above Gon's finger, Bisky smiling "Okay, one minute's up. Your task…" Bisky held her palm out, pointing towards the rock "Hit that rock."

Gon threw out his finger, pushing the ball away. It got a few more meters away before fizzling out, much to the boy's disappointment "It didn't work. I couldn't reach it at all…"

"That was just fine. You still have time to try again. Raphael must hold his for another two minutes and thirty-five seconds. You're doing good by the way."

"Thanks, but it's quite intense."

"You're used to throwing your aura immediately. It's not normal for you to try to maintain that size of aura for a couple of minutes." She made an educated guess, considering she'd never seen the boy maintain his ability for longer than a couple of minutes before throwing his attack. So, it's likely he's never put himself in a position where he had to hold it to get a better shot.

"Yeah…"

Gon still looked a little disheartened at his failure, "Cheer up. You're in far better shape than a Transmuter would be! Killua would be struggling to maintain as well as throwing it considering his going to be at sixty per cent efficiency. Just be patient, and try to focus on maintaining your aura in a sphere for extended periods, of time. That's going to help you when it comes to creating your Paper ability."

"Osu!"

"Oh, speaking of which. Doing this will also help you, Raphael. If you can hold it for longer, it should help you throw longer distances. Oh, and given your other talent, with a bit of practice, this should also help your Mirage's survivability and the distance it can move away from you. Although, it wouldn't help you, so much if issuing commands at a distance is difficult."

Gon had been focusing on his little ball of aura the whole discussion. On a whim, he decided to throw it.

"Before the day…" Bisky turned back in time, standing silently as it got closer to the rock. The three stared in total silence when the ball popped against the rock, the object shaking to indicate it was a direct hit.

Raphael's ball of aura popped at his fingertip. Gon scoring a direct hit on his second attempt distracted him long enough to lose focus.

The three were shocked by what transpired. None of them expected it to happen on his second attempt. Not even Gon.

All Bisky could muster was a shocked "is out…?"

"I reached it! Yes!" Gon cheered in triumph, his giddiness was contagious.

Bisky turned back to Raphael, a sly smirk forming across her lips, "Oops, you failed. You have to start all over again."

Raphael let out a cry out of anguish, unable to believe Gon making it was what caused his downfall. He's back to square one, while Gon already gets to move on. But on the plus side, seeing how happy the boy was passing, was infectious. He may have to start all over again, but that didn't matter.

Gon was happy with passing the Emitter training. He would pass too; he just needs to maintain his aura from scratch all over again.

Bisky raised her finger, "Since you passed it so easily, I'll increase the distance next time. I want you to eventually hit that rock from one kilometre away. So, let's get to practising those basics again."

A/N: Leave a review, it helps inspire me.