The young wolf got into a sitting position with a startle, gasping as he drew long, ragged breaths from his mouth and panting. His eyes were wide, and he was staring right ahead, as the first, the only thought on his mind now that he was awake was...
"Mom." The twelve-years-old wolf said, as he kept on his bed, staring straight ahead, before he worked it in him to get up and walk.
His bare feet touched the ground, as the wolf had his ladybug-stamped pajamas on his body, and he walked in direction to the door.
He had not even reached it when he could hear a familiar male voice:
"Man... that was not supposed to happen..."
The wolf stopped, hesitating as he heard his voice.
The voice of the man who he knew as his father.
"That wasn't supposed to happen at all... damn... is that what happens if we use it in hybrids...?"
He could hear his voice. It seemed... cold. Colder than on the previous times he talked to Legoshi. His voice was so warm and welcoming whenever he spoke to his son.
"No. It cannot be for you being a hybrid. This was supposed to work in any carnivore, no matter the species. Being mixed should not have changed the outcome so much..." He spoke, he seemed troubled, but not excessively. "Could it be because... you weren't strong enough to handle it?"
Then, he heard it.
He heard that sound. That sound he would remember for the rest of his life.
"Hmmm, yeah, maybe that's the case..." He said, now sounded resigned. "Yeah, you were never all that strong to begin with. You were good looking, before those scales started growing, anyways. But being beautiful is not the same as being strong. Well, that's too bad, I guess."
The sound came again.
A sound of moaning. A pained, drawn-out moan that was like that of an animal who was dying. It made Legoshi's fur stand on end as he felt dread from this sound.
He felt dread because he recognized the source of that sound. He recognized that voice. He recognized it from the times she spoke with him through the hole on the door.
That was his mother.
"Well, it wasn't a total waste, at least. Now we know that using it on someone who is too weak will result in... well, that. Damn, good thing I found out before using on my people." He spoke, and now it seemed that nearly all emotion was gone to his voice. He spoke in away so casual, which was so different from the pained tone on the voice of the female he was talking with.
She sounded hurt.
He should be helping her.
Why wasn't he helping her?
Legoshi finally worked the courage to open the door and walk down the hallway, where he knew his mother's bedroom was.
The door, which had been closed since she locked herself in there when he was seven, was now wide open, allowing Legoshi to peek inside.
"I have to tell Drake about this..." The male wolf said as he crouched, his back turned to Legoshi. "He'll definitely want to know. He is the one who produces this stuff, after all."
After a few moments of silence. Legoshi finally spoke.
"Dad?"
The male wolf turned to look at him, his eyes wide in surprise as he looked at the young wolf.
"Oh... Legoshi..." He said, looking at his son while turning his body slightly.
"What are you doing awake, little guy? It's late."
His tone changed again. It was warm. Like it usually was when he talked to the boy. So different from that cold voice from a few seconds ago.
"I-I heard..." Legoshi said, looking at the male wolf as he stood up. Then, his gaze sifted to the figure behind him, the one he had been crouching over.
"L-Lego... shi..." The female voice, his mother's voice, called to him.
The wolf was confused at first. Then, as he looked more carefully, he felt something. A feeling on his chest, on his heart. His eyes widened, his body trembling as he continued to look.
He could not look away. He wanted to, as he realized what he was looking at, but he could not.
Not even as she lifted her... what was supposed to be an arm, towards him, calling his name once more.
"It's okay, Legoshi." The male said in a gentle tone. "It's all okay, don't worry."
However, the young wolf didn't hear him.
He was too busy screaming.
He screamed louder than he ever remembered screaming. He screamed as he looked at that... thing. The thing that was supposed to be his mother.
That was once his mother.
"Le... go..." She said, reaching for him with that broken, bloodied and mangled thing that was once an arm, keeping it lifted towards him demanding as much strength as forming syllables. And then, the strength was gone.
The arm fell to the ground, splattering some blood around.
Legoshi screamed again, and he ran. Not away, but towards his mother.
However, before he could reach her, the male stopped him by grabbing his wrist.
"Leave her, Legoshi." The adult wolf said, while Legoshi fought against him to reach her. "There is nothing you can do."
"Mom! Mom!" Legoshi cried out, reaching a hand towards her, but she did not answer. She was not moving. She just stayed there on the ground soaked on blood. The smell of it was overpowering.
"She was too weak, Legoshi." The male said. "I tried to make her strong, but she had to be strong enough to begin with. She wasn't, and this was the result."
Legoshi was not understanding what he was saying. Why was he saying those things? Why was he not helping her!?
She was still alive! Legoshi knew it! He could feel her aura! It was faint, but it was there! They could still help her!
But the adult holding his wrist didn't seemed interested in help, as he simply said, once more on that cold tone:
"Take a good look, Legoshi. This is what happens to the weak. This is the sad reality of our world. It is not the beautiful who stand out the most, but the strong. The ones who can overcome and become greater. And those who can't end like this. So, you must become strong..."
"Mommy!" Legoshi tried to reach for her once more, her aura was getting so weak now...
But the hand holding his wrist squeezed.
"Otherwise, you will end like this waste of life who is your mother."
Legoshi looked back at him, and then he screamed again. The male wolf had transformed. He turned into a demon.
"Your mother was a weak fool! She never had what it took to survive! All she had were her looks! If it wasn't for that, I would never have bothered to look her way! Once the looks were gone, she had nothing! But those who have strength, those have everything! The strong can fight! The strong can overcome! The strong can rise above all others! The strong get to decide how this world will be run! That's how our society truly works! It is all defined by the will of the strong!"
"Let me go!" Legoshi said, "Help! Someone help me!"
"So!" He pulled Legoshi closer, "Next time you see that rabbit, you will sink your teeth on her and tear her flesh away! She was weak, but even the weak like her can have some value by serving as sacrifices for those strong, like you and me, to become even stronger! That is their purpose in life! It validates their existence! When you find that rabbit again, you must eat her!"
"No!" Legoshi said, "Let me go! Let me goooooooooo!"
He lifted his hand, creating something in it. Something long and full of legs.
Legoshi then swung the giant centipede on his hand like a whip, hitting the demon wolf right on the face, but producing no visible effect other than a small gash from which blood started leaking.
"Now that's a good attitude." The demon said, "But you still lack strength. You have not yet become all you can be. You need to become stronger, Legoshi. You need to become strong enough to force the world to move. To force everyone to follow you towards a new world! You will become strong enough so everyone will follow you, Legoshi! I will make sure of it! I will not accept a son of mine to be weak!"
"No!"
"You will become strong, so you don't end up like your failure of a mother!"
"No!"
"You will be strong, so you can change the world, Legoshi! This is your destiny!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Something inside of Legoshi moved. It was like a switch flicked, and then something flared. Something exploded.
Was it himself?
Legoshi was not sure.
Everything around him vanished. The demon, his mother, and the room they were all into.
Now Legoshi, a seventeen-year-old, was floating into the void. He was aware of everything and nothing at the same time.
"I... don't want it..." Legoshi said, curling into a ball as he floated into the empty nothingness. "I don't want to be strong. I don't want people to follow me. I don't want them to look at me... I just want to vanish... I want to stay in the dark and not let anyone see me... I want everyone to forget I exist... I want to be left alone... I want to live in peace..."
Legoshi said. Those words repeating like an echo on his own mind, like a mantra. A record that had been put in an endless loop, repeating those words over and over.
"You can't live in peace, Legoshi..." His voice broke through the comforting mantra, forcing the curled-up wolf to open his eyes and see the demon wolf looking at him with red, glowing eyes.
"You have a great future ahead of you, son of mine, and it doesn't involve peace." He said, his lips curling into a toothy smirk. "You can't run from your destiny... I will not allow you to."
"Go away..." Legoshi said weakly, his voice barely a whisper. The demon wolf was looking at him, opening his mouth to say something else.
Then, someone pulled a curtain...
"YOH, LEGOSHI!"
Legoshi stared. He just stared at the face of one of his roommates looking back at him. A face with clear fur, a great mass of it covering that canine's eyes.
"Collot...?" Legoshi said, sounding confused.
"Morning, sleepy-head!" the sheepdog said. "It is morning already, and you were still in bed! And you were groaning! What, was having one of those dreams where you are only on your underwear in front of the whole school?"
Legoshi didn't answered that. He didn't had time to answer, for then Collot started dragging him out of the bed. Legoshi didn't fought, and the rest of his dorm laughed at this. They all knew how sluggish Legoshi was in the morning, and how hard it was to make him move and get started. They often had to use a few tricks to get him out. Like Voss using his Nen Wires to pull him out of bed.
Voss himself seemed to enjoy showing off how a small guy like himself could pull a massive wolf out of bed by shaping his nen into strings and then using them to control him in the morning like a puppet, even forcing Legoshi to brush his teeth and change his clothes while the wolf was still too sluggish to fight on those strings of nen, which were as thin as nylon but as strong as iron cables.
He didn't do that on that specific morning, though. He only allowed Collot to pull Legoshi out of the bed and force him into his feet, while laughing about what a zombie the wolf was in the morning alongside everyone else.
Jack, however, was not laughing. He noticed something was off.
He knew Legoshi for long enough to know that today was not like other days. This was not Legoshi's usual morning slugginess. There was something wrong. He could see it in the wolf's eyes.
Those eyes, who were focused on the mirror in front of him, staring at it half-lidded and seeing, instead of his own reflecting, his'.
"You can't escape."
Legoshi had to consciously fight his urge to punch the mirror.
Legoshi's strange behavior persisted even on the cafeteria, as they all gathered for food. Today's special was bread with milk, a real treat to any carnivore. However, Legoshi, who normally was happy and eager at the prospect of having bread, didn't seemed excited.
"Legoshi, are you okay?" Jack asked to the wolf as they sat on their table and discussed the matters of today. This included some of their opinions on the latest training sessions.
"I'm telling you, he would not have won if I've had time to charge!" Durham said. "You guys know that the more times I flex my fingers, the stronger I can punch with my hand after! That's how my Pump-Punch works!"
"Well, your fault for putting such a restriction in it that forces you to waste time clenching and unclenching your fist." Collot said.
"Hey! Some of us need to put restrictions in our techniques to make them stronger! Not everyone can be like you, who just needs to pull the fur off your eyes to activate your Gaze of Love and make any beast, male or female, fall in love with you!"
"That's a real cool technique." Miguno said, "Makes me wish I was a manipulator."
"Hey, your ability to materialize magic playing cards with your Hyena Game is awesome too!" Voss said to the hyena, speaking how Miguno, who always had affinity with trade card games, could use his conjuration skill to summon special cards that produced magic effects of varied types.
Legoshi, on his end, was pretty much oblivious to all they were saying. He was too busy looking down at his own food. More precisely, at the piece of bread in it.
A fancy type of food that had all the carbs and proteins that a carnivore needed, not to mention how delicious it was, being a real treat to a wolf like Legoshi.
A treat he didn't felt like having.
I don't want to touch anything soft after last night... Legoshi thought to himself. He remembered how soft that herbivore's skin felt against his fingers. How he could not help himself but to caress it as he held her. As he got ready to what he was about to do.
And now you are hungry in the morning. You should have eaten her when you had the chance. She would be sweeter than that bread.
Shut up...
"Hey! Watch it!"
Someone said, and Legoshi's ears perked. He turned his head to look, just like a lot of beasts on the cafeteria. They were all looking as a fox and a painted dog had an argument, which was getting louder and louder.
Apparently, one of them bumped into the other, and now the offended party was demanding an apologize, while the "offender" was saying that it was the first guy's fault for not looking where he was going.
They were getting louder and louder, as they went from demanding an apology to insult each other. And then each other's mothers. And then, it finally culminated with the painted dog charging forward and clamping his teeth on the fox's arm.
This action generated an uproar from everyone in there, as the fox started punching the dog's face to get him to let go.
The dog, however, refused to let go. At least, until the fox used his nen.
A well-applied punch charged with aura sent the dog flying back several feet, causing everyone to gasp.
"Owww, my face..." The dog said, holding his muzzle. He could taste his own blood on his mouth.
"That hurt, you jackass!" the dog said, as he then charged his nen. It condensed around him forming balls of nen, which then shaped themselves in dog-heads, before condensing and becoming solid. The painted dog was now surrounded by floating skulls of his own kind.
"Get him!" The dog commanded, with his Dead Pack charging forward and attacking the fox, who had to dodge their charge, but was bit on the arm by one of them. This time, the teeth bit hard enough to sink into his flesh, drawing blood.
"You bastard!" The fox said, as he activated his own nen skill.
While that dog was a conjurer, the fox was a transmuter. He focused his nen around the base of his tail and allowed it to sprout forward and shape itself into eight copies of his tail made or pure aura, which then struck at the skull, piercing it with their spear-like tips and shattering it.
"Hey, stop it!"
"You are not supposed to fight outside of training!"
"Someone, call a teacher"
While everyone around panicked, the two dogs continued at it. The painted dog commanded his skulls to attack the fox, who fought them off with his Eightfold Battle Tails. As they did, everyone around them was becoming more and more agitated. The herbivores were growing uncomfortable, while the carnivores were getting riled up, like they did in nearly all sparring sessions they watched.
Some, however, were far more composed.
"Man, they are actually going at it..." Said an elephant as he watched the scene from the upper levels of the cafeteria. It was like a VIP area, where only a selected few students could go to eat and mingle. And the ones on that table were looking down at the scene beneath.
"Yeah, they are both quite edgy, aren't they?" Asked a snow leopard, who looked down with a certain indifference, his expression cold as he then turned to the others on the table.
"So, do we do something about it?" he asked, to what one of the people he talked with scoffed.
"Why should we?" The softshell turtle asked. "This is actually kind of entertaining, to be honest. My money is on the fox."
"We should stop them." Said a voice by his side.
"Why?"
"Well, maybe because we are Cherryton's beastar candidates." The fourth beast said, to that, the turtle scoffed.
"So what? Does that automatically make that our problem?" He asked, "Seriously, why would we bother if two idiots kill each other? I say we let them. It will be one less weakling to bother us."
"You are a disgrace." The fourth beast said, "All of you."
"Oh, yeah?" the turtle asked. "Then why don't you go down there and do something? Or are you too worried about your ride of today getting damaged? What, have you not made insurance on that kitty?"
The turtle turned to the lion standing by his side. However, it was not to the lion that he was speaking. It was to the mouse on top of the lion's head, with a firm grip on the fur of his mane while the lion, with a vacant expression n his face, lifted a piece of cheese to allow the mouse to take bites out of it.
The mouse didn't answer, and the turtle scoffed again.
"Honestly, I don't know why we hang out with you, Malu." Said the turtle. "You know what, I'm bored of being here. Let's go look for something else to do."
With that, the turtle got up and walked away, with the elephant and snow leopard coming right behind him.
"You are not all going to ditch class again, are you?" The mouse asked. "It will be the second time this week, and you have already been warned about it. You better rethink it."
"Oh, shut up!" The turtle said, "If I wanted your opinion, I'd ask for it! I'm walking away exactly so I don't have to hear you!" with that, the turtle and his friends walked through the door of the opening to that VIP cafeteria, leaving the manipulator mouse in there with the lion. The rodent then looked down again, watching as those two down there continued what they were doing, with half of the cafeteria telling them to stop and the other half egging them on.
The fox had just slammed his nen tails into the ground to propel himself upwards to avoid the bite of more skulls. He then used the same tails to break his fall by using them to stop himself, and then used them to wrap the skulls like tendrils and squeezed them until they shattered.
"That's all you can do?" the fox taunted. "At this rate you'll only manage to make me yawn, you weakling!"
Dammit... The dog though as he snarled. Guess I'll have to put my body on the line.
With this, the dog acted again, this time focused his nen around his arms before condensing and solidifying it.
Now, both his forearms were enveloped in giant dog skulls.
Legoshi, like everyone else, watched as the dog charged at the fox, the mouths of the giant skulls on his arms open and ready to bite.
They have to stop! Someone has to stop them!
No. Let them fight. This away they will know who among the two is truly strong.
The fox tried to shatter those skulls with his tails, only to find out they were much more resilient than the other skulls, thanks to the limitation of only being able to be summoned if they remained attached to that dog's arms, basically forcing him to actually go into battle himself instead of sending the skulls to take all risk for him.
As he shook the tails off, he then put both his arms forward, and the skulls opened their jaws as they barked, producing a soundwave so strong that it pushed the fox back like a shockwave, sending him reeling into the ground while holding his ears in pain.
"How about that for a weakling!?" the dog demanded. "That's what happens when you face Lycaon the Painted Dog, foxy!"
Stop. Just stop.
No! Keep fighting! Fight until only the strongest remain!
"My name is not foxy..." The fox said as he got up, his nen tails entangling around each other. "It's Kitsune the Red Fox!"
They eight tails tangled around the real tail turning into a spiral mass of nen shaped like a drill, which's head stated spinning juts like one.
"And I will make sure you never forget it!"
This is getting out of hand!
This is wonderful!
Everyone is scared!
Because they recognize the presence of the strong! The weak cower while the strong prepare for battle! They fight to determine who is the strongest of all and shall lead everyone! This is how it's supposed to be!
"I'll get you now!"
"I'll kill you!"
In this world, the strong rule!
He was smirking as he said that, a terrifying smirk of the likes Legoshi had hoped to never see again.
As this all happened, someone who had been watching for a while decided that enough was enough and stepped forward.
"Hey, you two-" Louis the Red Deer said, but he didn't had time to say another word, for that was when Legoshi screamed:
"STOP IIIIIIIT!"
As he screamed, something happened. His nen exploded forward. His aura expanded, encompassing everything around the wolf. The nearby tables. Then the cafeteria. Then the entire building. Then the two neighbor buildings.
Everyone inside of that field felt themselves under immense pressure, as they were subjected to a dense aura. So dense that it felt like as if they were immersed in gelatinous substance.
Louis, who had been stepping forward, was in shock.
Lycaon and Kitsune, who were at each other's throats, stopped what they were doing. All thoughts of fighting left their minds as the sheer amount of nen caused their own constructs to dissipate completely.
Every single person on the cafeteria was taken by surprise, with some tripping, some stumbling back, and with many gasping. The mouse on the upper levels was so startled that he lost his grip on the lion's mane and dropped to the table.
Outside the building, the turtle, snow leopard and elephant stopped dead on their tracks and turned around as they felt that wave of nen hit them like a ton of bricks, the turtle cussing loudly as he felt that immense pressure.
And, all the way across campus, a beast who just returned from the city with a plastic bag on his hand stopped. His big ears twitching and then his red eyes turning in direction to the mess hall's building.
"Legoshi?" Kazma said as he looked at the distance, recognizing that nen signature.
And, back on the cafeteria...
"Legoshi, stop!"
It was Jack's voice.
Much like Zoe's on the previous night, the voice of his best friend seemed to snap the wolf out of a trance, causing him to blink and to realize what he was doing and stop it immediately.
It was as if whatever pressure was expelled out of the wolf's body was sucked right back in. However, the damage had already been done.
Everyone was staring at Legoshi.
Lycaon dropped to his knees, his arms limp by the sides of his body, while Kitsune dropped flat on his butt, panting as he looked at the wolf in shock.
The same shocked expressions on everyone else on the hall. From Legoshi's roommates to Louis-senpai.
They were all looking at him. They knew he had done that.
Legoshi bolted. He ran out of there as fast as he could, practically slamming himself through the doors and rushing down the hallway, leaving behind a cafeteria full of shaken beasts.
"W-what the heck was that!?" Kitsune asked after nearly ten seconds, looking at Lycaon for answers, but the dog was too busy staring at the distance with a haunted expression on his face. The same expression as Louis as he looked t the doors through which Legoshi just ran.
And, on the upper levels, Malu the Mouse was also looking down with an expression of shock and amazement, while the lion looked around confused.
"W-what? What is this? Where am I? How did I get here?"
Legoshi kept running.
He just ran.
Like when he was a child and felt the sudden urge to run. Something that his grandpa said, very affectionally, was called "the zoomies". This urge to run that pups, so ever full of energy, had.
However, this was not the zoomies. Legoshi was not running because he had energy that he wanted to let out by running around like a fool and laughing while doing it.
Legoshi knew exactly why he was running, and it was not for a happy reason.
He just wanted to run away. Away from the cafeteria, from that building.
Heck, he wanted to run away from Cherryton!
Don't you dare run, Legoshi! Only the weak do that! You are not weak, are you!?
Shut up! Shut up and go to hell! You and all that talk about weak and strong! I'm sick of it! I'm sick of all of it! Just shut up and leave me alone! I just want a peaceful and happy life! I want to be normal!
Legoshi had tears streaming down his face as he continued to run. He was powering his legs with his aura so he could run all the way out of city, to somewhere else no one knew him, so he could change his name and pretend to be a normal person.
However, that was when someone entered his way. A white rabbit.
The one from yesterday!? Legoshi thought in shock but, as he ran and got close and closer to this rabbit, he realized it was not the same one from yesterday. It was a male and much taller but had the same white fur.
Kazma-sensei!
Legoshi, however, was not able to stop running, even as he realized who was the rabbit standing on his path. He ran straight towards him, as if he was going to tackle him. To that, the rabbit swiftly, in a motion so fast that one could miss it if they blinked, lifted his hand and grabbed the collar of Legoshi's shirt, sidestepping as he swung his arm, causing Legoshi to be flipped in the air, his feet leaving the ground as he made a complete spin.
He only didn't go off flying because Kazma kept a firm grip on his shirt, completing the fluid movement and making Legoshi flip back on his feet, landing softly into the ground.
The wolf stood there in shock, his brain trying to make heads and tails of what just happened, while Kazma casually adjusted the wolf's tie and gently smoothed the wrinkles on his shirt.
"Are you calmer now?" The tall white rabbit asked, and the wolf blinked.
"Hm?"
To that, Kazma placed his hand on the wolf's head, petting him between the ears.
"Something happened, didn't it?" he asked, sounding like a worried parent as he did. Legoshi didn't had to answer.
"Wanna talk about it?"
Legoshi was still shaken and confused, but he got calmer as the rabbit talked to him. And soon, they were speaking while sitting on a bench.
"I felt it right after I entered across the main gate." Kazma said, and that shocked the wolf.
He had expanded his aura that much!? But... that meant the entire school felt it!
"Hey, relax, kid." Kazma was saying to the wolf after seeing how alarmed he was. "You didn't expand your aura all across the school. You are not that strong. Not yet, at least."
The last part did not make Legoshi feel good. He looked down.
"But still, it was so intense that I'm pretty sure anyone with a decent nose for nen managed to catch it." Kazma said. "That includes Gon and nearly all the staff. And maybe some of the most talented students. But, I'm pretty sure no one else far from the cafeteria felt it."
That didn't tranquilize Legoshi all that much.
"Hey hey, now. Come on." Kazma was looking at the wolf "What's with the long face?"
"They... they all know now..." Legoshi said. "Everyone in the cafeteria... they all know."
"Know what?" Kazma said, "That you are the strongest student of the school, at least in what says about sheer nen capacity? You talk as if that is a bad thing."
"Because it is!" Legoshi didn't meant to snap, but he did. While many other herbivores would have flinched, Kazma showed no visible reaction as he continued to look at the wolf with an inquisitive expression.
"I... I didn't want them to find out..." Legoshi said, looking down. "I just wanted to go through Cherryton without incidents. And when I graduated, I would go into a college that offered an entomology course... I didn't want everyone looking my way..."
Kazma looked down.
"Oh, right. You want a normal life, no? That's the whole point of you pretending to be weak for everyone else. I had forgotten that's why you always lose your battles on purpose."
The white rabbit was looking at the distance as he spoke those words.
"I just don't get why, though." Kazma said. "Why go so far to hide your strength? Why are you so afraid of people knowing how strong you are?"
Legoshi took a moment to answer. He was looking for the right words to say to this question, and he eventually found them.
"Because I don't want to be part of this whole strength thing." Legoshi said. "Because, when you are a nen user, you measure how strong you are by how bad you can mess someone else up. If you can beat others up, and this makes you strong, and that just seems... wrong. I want no part in it. If being strong means that I'll spend my life hurting others, then I think I prefer being weak."
Kazma looked at the wolf as he explained that, and then he nodded.
"That's quite the point of view you have there, kid. Spoke like a true pacifist, if I can say so myself." The rabbit was speaking in a friendly manner at the wolf, who thanked him for that. Then Kazma continued:
"But I do think you got it wrong. At least in part."
"Eh?" The wolf looked at Kazma, who was leaning back on the bench, hands on his pockets as he looked in the distance.
"Yes, I will not deny that we, as nen users, measure our strength by how well we can fight. However, that does not mean we exist only to hurt others. That's not the type of legacy we would be proud to leave behind."
He was looking at the flowers.
"We exist to protect what we love." He said, a longing expression on his face. "Those powers we have, we use them to protect all we hold dear. We use them to fight for something that's worth it. That's a thing that we, as beasts, feel the need to do. We protect what we consider important to us. Either is something big, as society in general, or something small and personal, like a lucky coin, we all feel the urge to protect something."
"More often than not, it is another beast." Kazma was looking very intently at the flowers on the center of the square as he said that. "People can fight for so many things, be it for justice or for personal gain. If you ask me, fighting for love makes lot more sense. Fighting to protect the people you love seems way more reasonable than fighting for all the rest. But, that's just my opinion."
"Kazma-sensei..." Legoshi said, looking at the rabbit, who then sighed, and looked at the sky.
"I get it that you feel like measuring strength by who you can beat up is something wrong, Legoshi. Believe me when I say you are not the only one." The rabbit was looking at the blue sky doted with white fluffy clouds as he said that. He then looked at the wolf, a smile on his face.
"In that case, I recommend you start measuring your strength by the things and people you can protect. That sounds a lot better, doesn't it?"
Legoshi could only stare at him.
"The people I... can protect?"
"Yeah, that's right!" Kazma sounded a bit too happy as he said that. "You have people you want to protect, don't you, Legoshi? I am sure you have. You are a good person, after all."
Legoshi... A good person...
The same wolf who, just the previous night, nearly devoured a rabbit like Kazma-sensei.
The wolf looked down, unable to say anything to the white rabbit, who looked back at him with red eyes.
"You hungry?"
"Hm?"
"I'm asking if you are hungry." Kazma said, and he showed the plastic bags he brought with himself. "I bought snacks while in the city. I brought them as an apology to... someone, but I realized I bought too many of them after I arrived. So, would you like some, or did you already eat enough on the cafeteria?"
Legoshi blinked. Suddenly, he realized that he rushed out of the cafeteria before even taking a single bit of his food.
"I... didn't ate at all while in the cafeteria. I was going to, but then all of that happened..."
"Okay then!" Kazma said happily, getting up and dropping one of the plastic bags on Legoshi's lap, startling the wolf slightly, "Here you go! Hope you like celery and razzberry cream puffs. But, would you mind eating while we walk? We are both kind of late now."
"Late...?"
"For class!" Kazma said, "It is time for the nen training class! I gotta teach, and you need to be there for me to sign your name on the rollcall! Since you seem to be a bit off today, I will not make you take part in training. You can just sit and watch, alright?"
Legoshi didn't really have much time to answer, because then Kazma started urging to get up, saying they were very late, and needed to rush to get to training hall three on time.
It always gets to me how friendly and outgoing Kazma-sensei can be sometimes... Legoshi thought, as the rabbi took him to the training hall. Legoshi took some bites out of the cream puffs. They were quite good.
"Oh, that's the vegan cream." Kazma said, "They make it in a way that is super fluffy without losing consistency. This makes the puff cakes have a very special flavor, especially for us herbivores. Not sure if it is a proper carnivore lunch, but nothing wrong with breaking your usual diet every once in a while. Even supermodels got cheat days, after all."
And Kazma continued to speak about how that specific cream puff was the best in the region, while he guided the wolf all the way to the place where they both were scheduled to be next.
"Hey there! Sorry for being late!" Kazma said loudly as be made his way into the place. He was quite loud as he arrived, and a lot of people looked his way as he entered... with Legoshi.
The wolf felt like shrinking and vanishing as everyone there had their eyes on him. He could hear them whispering.
"It's him! The wolf from the cafeteria!"
"That's the guy!"
"Wait, that on one!?"
"No way! The guy is the weakest beast in Cherryton!"
"Are you sure it was not another guy? Maybe another wolf?"
Legoshi had his head down as he was told by Kazma to look for some place to sit. The rabbit went down to the arena below, while Legoshi started looking for some place to stand and then hide...
"Legoshi!" Jack called, as he and the other guys rushed to him, all of them asking if he was okay, and what the heck happened on the cafeteria earlier. Before the wolf could answer, though...
"Hey, Legoshi!" A new voice called out for the wolf. It was Bill.
"It's my first ever training session! Can you believe that!? Man, I am so excited! I can't wait to show everyone what I can do!" Bill said, still feeling on top of the world since awakening his nen. He did notice that Legoshi seemed down.
"Hey, cheer up, dude! You will get to see me in action!" Bill said to the wolf with an arm around his shoulder. "Oh, and don't worry, if you end up as my sparring partner, I promise not to rough you up too much. ~"
Bill said that with a smirk that was friendly but also mischievous, and that didn't sit well with Jack, who was listening.
The tiger certainly heard the stories of how much of a weakling Legosh was. Perhaps even the rumors about how Kazma-sensei purposefully set up beginners with him so they could have easy wins to boost their confidence...
"By the way, I heard about something that happened in the cafeteria an hour ago." Bill said, "I eat another time, so I was not really there. But you were, right?"
Before Legoshi could answer, Kazma-sensei spoke from the center of the training ring, addressing all the present students.
"So, today we won't be practicing sparring." Kazma said to everyone present, and then he added:
"While fighting other nen users is something that you might see happening often, and I do mean often, it is not all that there is to be one of us. So, today, we will train the other part of being a nen user entails." With this said, Kazma reached out for his remote and pressed a button.
As he did, the center of the arena opened, revealing it to be a trap door, and up from below came a cage.
Inside the cage, was a creature that snarled, growled and screamed at everyone around as it paced back and fourth on the cage. Everyone looked at it with wide eyes, taking in the alien appearance of the creature. From the six legs with which it paced around the cage with its feline body covered in blue stripes, the two tendril-like appendages coming out of its back and whipping around as if looking for a prey, the long tail that ended in a mouth covered in sharp teeth that dripped with saliva laced with venom, and it's grotesque face with a gaping mouth filled with jagged fangs and that lacked any visible eyes.
A lot of people freaked out as they saw that thing. In particular, the newbies who recently acquired their nen abilities and just joined on everything, such as Bill.
"Wow..." Bill said, not being able to help but feel disturbed by that thing. In particular, by its distinctly tiger-like stripes. "Hey, Legoshi? Is that a..."
"Yes..." Legoshi said, already sensing Bill's question as he looked at the thing on the cage with the same apprehension. "That's a warbeast."
"Now..." Kazma said, gesturing at the thing on the cage. "For those of you who don't know, this is a warbeast. Nasty, ain't it? Well, you will have to fight it."
There was a murmur among the people in there, in particular some of dread coming from the newbies.
"Hold on! No one said anything about fighting monsters!" Someone said, and then Kazma said:
"Well, they should have, because this is an important job of nen users."
"But why do we have to fight that thing!? What even is that!? Is it some kind of nen beast!?"
Kazma sighed. Great, someone who was completely clueless. Why there was always one or two of those on his classes?
"Okay, let me go from the beginning." Kazma said, looking around. "You guys remember the speech Gon did for all of you on the entrance ceremony? About the legacy of Cherryton, and the whole story about the appearance of nen in our world a hundred years ago during the Carni-Herbi War? I am sure you do. Remember the part of how the carnivores and herbivores with nen went and killed each other in a violent combat?"
Kazma had his arms crossed over his chest as he spoke.
"Well, when that happened, a phenomenon happened. One that was not yet understood, but that we grasp better today, albeit not completely. We refer to it as post-mortem nen. Everyone knows what it is, right?"
"I do!" Bill said, lifting his hand. "Post-morten nen is something that happens if a nen user dies while experiencing strong emotions, like anger. The aura of the recently deceased beast is infused with the emotions and uses them to move on its own, shaping itself into a form of autonomous nen technique that will them search for revenge against the target of the deceased's hatred, kind of like a vengeance from beyond the grave."
Bill was speaking as if he was repeating words he read in a book while researching ways to try and help his nen powers awakening.
"Oh, when post-morten nen happens, then the dead user's nen manifests itself more powerful than it ever was when they were alive." Bill added, as if it was something worthy being noted. To all that, Kazma could only nod.
"Yes, that's all correct." The rabbit spoke. "Post-morten nen is an event that we still don't fully understand, as it is a hard one to investigate due to the many moral and ethical concerns regarding research in it. However, it is a fact that it does happen. As it was first observed on the Carni-Herbi War."
Kazma had a somber tone as he spoke:
"As the nen users from both sides of the war clashed and killed each other with their new powers, they died the worst types of deaths that one can suffer. Deaths filled with suffering and anger. Those emotions of anger, anguish, suffering, hate and resentment were the last things they felt as they died. Those emotions impregnated their auras as they drew their last breath, and then, their auras moved while being guided by those emotions."
"The resulting stances of post-morten nen claimed even more victims among the ones present. And those, in return, activated their own post-morten nen upon perishing. And this cascade effect continued until the last animal present had died, leaving behind only their auras, tainted with their negative emotions, to continue attacking each other, fueling their own hatred while meshing, and destroying the environment around them."
"This was how the warzones were born." Kazma said, "Those places, spread all around the country, including one very close to our city and the neighbor city of Zebuth, are the sites were the most blood was spilled during the War. The resulting hateful aura from the death of so many nen users in a single spot caused those places to become a center of nen activity of the likes you cannot find anywhere else in the world. Those places were not only damaged, but they were altered beyond recognition. The effects of nen on the place caused the flora, the soil, the water, the air, and even the gravity to change. The very laws of physics in those places became flimsy and unstable. Those very places are hotspots for spontaneous nen activity."
He then gestured to the cage behind him, and the creature inside of it roared.
"The warbeasts are the place's equivalent to a fauna." The rabbit said, "They are nen beasts that live and thrive on the local. Either from being descendants of the nen beasts created by the post-morten nen of the war's victims from a century ago, from materializing into the place as a result of the nen suddenly shifting and taking physical form, they are creatures that one can find all over the place. Due to their nature as nen beats, those creatures are different from normal life forms, being able to manifest abilities that could only ever be mimicked by nen users. Not only that, but the fact that they were originally born of violent emotions makes them irremediably vicious to any living creature that is not another warbeast, even the ones capable of something close to sapience will be violent towards any beast. Needless to say, they can be a major threat to the general public."
"Now, because of this very reason, the access to the warzones is highly restricted. There are barriers around the place, both to keep the warbeasts from getting out, and to prevent common beasts from going in."
"Why would anyone want to go in?" The person asked. "I mean, if the place is crawling with those monsters, then why would you want to go in there?"
"Because the warzones are filled with unique resources that one cannot find anywhere else." Kazma explained. "I'm sure you heard about those things, no? About those rare items being auctioned in live shows? Flowers that can make you temporarily immune to any and all venoms, including Komodo dragon's; fruits that can make the one who ate them permanently grown between two inches and a foot taller, berries that can cause you to change from male to female and from female to male, and many other things that anyone in the world would only describe as 'magic'. All those are things can be found among the nen-mutated flora of the warzones, as well as many mineral resources with unique properties that cannot be replicated even by experienced nen users. All of that extremely valuable."
"And many want to get their hands on those rare resources, either to use them themselves or to sell them for a hefty profit." Kazma concluded. "As a result, many started going into the warzones, with a countless number of beasts never being seen or heard from again. The demand for the resources found in those places caused a considerable number of nen users to specialize in going into the warzones, either by themselves or as scouts of groups, in order to collect resources, or to rescue any poor sod who tries to go in by themselves. This specific profession among nen users is called being a ranger. An exploration and rescue specialist with training to enter the warzones and face all the dangers one might find within them."
"And, of course..." Kazma continued, "There is the fact that, despite the barriers and vigilance around the areas, sometimes warbeasts can slip their way through the boundaries of the warzones. When they do, their innate aggressiveness and lust for blood will cause them to seek the nearest agglomeration of beasts and kill as many as they can. What, in case of the one next door, will be either Zebuth City or our own..."
"I guess I don't need to explain how bad it would be if they managed to get to those places and were allowed to run amuck." The rabbit looked around. "Which is why we have exterminators. They are nen users whose job is to hunt warbeasts that got out of the warzones, track them down before they reach any beast settlement, and then put them down or, in the case of the tamer ones, capture them alive so they can be used for research or other purposes."
Then he once more pointed at the cage.
"This is a warbeast of the tamer variety. It may look and act nasty, but it is relatively harmless compared to others of its kind." He spoke. "It was given to us specially for purposes of this class along with others of its type after being captured by an exterminator yesterday."
Hearing this, Legoshi perked.
"Yesterday…" The wolf said to himself, before speaking up:
"But there wasn't another escaped warbeast group earlier this week?"
This caused everyone to look at him, what caused the wolf to shrink. Kazma looked at him, and then he nodded.
"Yes, that's correct, Legoshi." He spoke, "Lately, there has been a noticeable increase on warbeast-related events all over the country, especially on the warzone near out city. Where there once was one or two incidents a month, in an agitated month, now there seems to be one once a week. And now two on the same week, both with groups of more than five warbeasts each. Its honestly a worrying pattern..."
Everyone present traded looks and murmured among themselves with the somber way that Kazma-sensei spoke those words. The rabbit, seeing what his words had done, decided to move on.
"Anyways, this is a rare opportunity. It is not always that the exterminators manage to capture a warbeast relatively unscathed that is tame enough to be used for training our students. It is not the type of chance that should be wasted." Kazma spoke. "So, which one among you would like to test their skills against this one?"
One among them immediately spoke up.
"I want!" Bill said, waving his hand in the air as he spoke. "Let me try one against that freak!"
"Bill!" Legoshi said, looking at the tiger, and so was Kazma.
"You're... uhhhhh..."
"Bill the Bengal Tiger!" The feline, "And I want a go at that thing!"
"Are you sure, Bill?" Kazma asked. "I mean, you just joined my classes. Maybe you should sit this one out and just try some sparring on the next class."
"No, I am ready!" Bill said, "Come on! Let me go at that thing! I know I can handle it well! You said yourself this one is tame, right?"
Kazma looked at him for a few moments, before saying:
"Sure, come along."
"Yes!" Bill said, and then he rushed down the stairs to the arena, ignoring Legoshi who was calling his name, trying to get him to reconsider.
"Okay then, Bill." Kazma said, "Get in position!"
"Alright!" Bill said, and he already activated his ren, allowing his aura to spread out around him, before causing it to ignite and turn into bright flames that burned around him without charring his clothes or fur. He was looking straight at the cage, and the warbeast inside seemed that it had already noticed the presence of its enemy, considering how riled up it was becoming.
Nearly as riled up as Bill himself, who was ready to use his fire. And, since he was fighting against a warbeast rather than another student, there was no need for him to hold back.
I'm gonna torch this thing to a crisp! Bill thought with a smirk as he prepared to attack as soon as he received the signal.
Meanwhile, Kazma was tensing a bit, as he too got ready to jump into action in case the warbeast proved too much for Bill. Yes, he said that this one was tame, but even "tame" warbeasts could be deadly if someone was careless enough around them.
I just hope this does not ends like the incident of couple years ago... I can't have another case of wasbeasts running off my class and causing havoc on the school. Gon would suspend my teaching license.
"Ready!" Kazma said, lifting his arm, with the remote grasped firmly on his hand. And then.
"Begin!" He said, as he pressed the button. The door of the cage snapped open, and the warbeast immediately leapt out and charged straight to the tiger...