The sky over the wasteland was overcast. A cool, slightly humid breeze blew across the earth, which was usually scorched by the blazing sun.
Under the cloudy sky, I was practicing 'Fuel'.
In the Shingen-ryu school of kung fu, 'Fuel' is a convenient method used to explain the supernatural phenomena caused by Nen abilities to ordinary people who are unaware of Nen. It explains the abnormal bloodlust and physical capabilities possessed by Nen users as the secrets of a special martial art.
Focus your mind on a target with 'Point'.
Put that target into words with 'Tongue'.
Heighten your will with 'Temper'.
Move into action with 'Release'.
This is merely a facade to keep the true Four Major Principles—'Ten', 'Zetsu', 'Ren', and 'Hatsu'—hidden from the public. No matter how much one practices 'Fuel', they will not acquire the strength of a Nen user.
However, it is also an effective mental unification method for training towards the rudimentary acquisition of Nen. Ordinary people first awaken to Nen through meditation and the practice of 'Fuel'.
Although I am already capable of using the true Four Major Principles, I continued this 'Fuel' training every day without fail. While it served as a return to basics, I had another, more important purpose.
I concentrate my consciousness with 'Point'. I discard sensation and perception, finding the world within my own interior.
I turn the world into words with 'Tongue'. Words are a framework; by being cut out by that frame, the world reveals its form within me.
What am I?
I solidify my will with 'Temper'. By questioning my own existence, I separate the self while simultaneously maintaining it.
And then, 'Release'. I hear the answer of "Me".
Countless versions of me appear within me. They are unmistakably me, yet at the same time, they are others. We are a single flock. A collective of consciousness that I create and manipulate.
This is the true value of 'Mental Tuning'—
A raindrop hit my body with a plip. That sensation pulled me back from meditation. Starting with that single drop, a blessing from the heavens began to pour down onto the dry earth.
The rainy season had arrived.
It was my first experience with rain. The withered earth was being moistened. The downpour continued without a break. The red forest was wrapped in the sound of rain.
At first, I was happy. That joy returned to normal levels in about half a day. My nest ended up submerged. I had no choice but to build a second floor extension and evacuate there.
Usually, water is precious, but having this much of it diminishes my gratitude. Moreover, the taste is strange. Or rather, it has no taste. Because I was used to drinking bitter juices laced with concentrated poison, I felt unsatisfied.
The sky is cloudy so I can't sunbathe, and I learned that rain isn't all that great.
However, there is one thing I am greatly thankful for. With this much water, I can perform the long-awaited Water Divination. Until now, no matter how hard I tried to collect juices, they would evaporate by the next day, so I couldn't do it.
Water Divination is a selection method to distinguish a Nen user's aura type among the six categories: Enhancement, Transmutation, Conjuration, Specialization, Manipulation, and Emission. The items required are a cup filled with water and a single leaf. It is considered the easiest way to confirm one's own type.
I immediately brought out the stone basin I had made for this moment. I had plenty of water. I floated a withered leaf on top of it, and the preparations were complete. All that was left was to cup the stone basin with both hands and perform Ren, but... it's difficult with an ant's body. I only have three legs, too. I just have to make it work with spirit.
The reaction appeared immediately. The leaf began to spin round and round on the water. The leaf moving means... Manipulation. It was exactly as predicted. If anything, I would have been anxious about my training methods up to this point if it had been different, so this was good.
However, the leaf is spinning with somewhat incredible force. Does this mean I have excellent aptitude for Manipulation? Of course, having aptitude is better than not having it, so this is goo—whoa! Because it was spinning too hard, water started splashing everywhere. I stopped my Ren, but it continued to spin for a while. I get it already.
Since performing Water Divination itself serves as training for one's specific category, I intend to continue it during the rainy season. It looks like I'm going to get soaked even while inside the house.
Now that it has been determined that I am a Manipulator, there is a task I can move forward with. That is the devising of a new 'Hatsu'. Let's organize the respective categories and the 'Six Types Diagram' here.
All 'Hatsu' (Special Abilities) are classified into six categories, represented by a hexagonal diagram like the following:
Enhancement
/ \
Emission Transmutation
Manipulation Conjuration
\ /
Specialization
For example, being a Manipulator, it is naturally easier for me to learn Manipulation abilities. However, that doesn't mean I can't create abilities of other types. Looking at the diagram, it is said that types adjacent to one's own are compatible, making it easier to draw out those abilities.
For Manipulation, that would be Emission and Specialization. However, since Specialization can only be learned by those with a Specialist constitution, I cannot learn it regardless of compatibility. In other words, practically speaking, Emission is the only other type easy for me to use. Manipulation is a disadvantageous type.
One must create a Hatsu that suits oneself, considering what type one excels in. The important thing here is inspiration. Realizing one's personality, constitution, experience, goals, hobbies—all of these individual traits—as an ability is what 'Hatsu' is. No matter if it belongs to your category, you won't be able to learn an ability that sparks no inspiration, and even if you do, the effect will likely be low.
I consider 'Hatsu' to be an "ability to make dreams come true." Nen does not have the power to grant just any wish exactly as one pleases. However, it is certain that the true heart wishing "I want to be like this" forms its foundation. Therefore, I thought that finding what I am seeking is the first important step in creating a Hatsu that suits me.
I thought about it while continuing my training. What do I seek? What kind of self do I want to become? The answer narrowed down to one thing. There is a dream I seek more clearly than anything else within me.
I want to become a human.
To me, my ideal self was not this ant form. Every day, whenever I indulged in meditation, I would picture a human form within myself. And when I finished meditating, I would agonize over my appearance, which was far from human.
That sense of wrongness grows day by day. Is this wish truly an answer I derived from my own desires, or is it an illusion shown to me by memories residing within me? Whatever the truth may be, I could not continue living while deceiving my own feelings.
A 'Hatsu' with the purpose of becoming human. The first thing that came to mind was my specialty, Manipulation. Manipulating myself to change my shape into a human form.
However, I reached the conclusion that realizing this plan is next to impossible. The biggest problem was the principle of Manipulation abilities: "One cannot place a Manipulation ability on a target that is already being manipulated."
In other words, even if I created a new Manipulation Hatsu, to use it on myself, I would have to deactivate 'Mental Tuning'. Two abilities cannot be used at once. If I turn off 'Mental Tuning', my body should revert to changing towards spawning mode. I could not do that alone.
Fundamentally, even if my aptitude for Manipulation is excellent, there is the question of whether it is possible to remodel an ant's body into a human one. There are indeed Manipulation abilities that manipulate the human body and transform its appearance. But there must be limits to that too. The body structure and size of an ant and a human are too far apart.
My current appearance looks more like a wingless bee than an ant. My size is about twenty centimeters. I am quite huge for an insect, covered by a developed exoskeleton like armor, but my basic structure is still that of a bug.
If I forcibly created an ability and became a monster that only half-heartedly gained human features, I would fall into deeper despair. I don't want to look like a demi-human Chimera Ant. In that case, I'd rather stay as I am.
I cannot create the form I desire with Manipulation. I needed to think of another way. And what I came up with was 'an ability to create the body I desire from scratch.' It sounds exaggerated when put into words, seeming like an ability far more difficult than biological manipulation, but actually, the hurdle required isn't that high.
'Hatsu' allows individuals to create various abilities, but naturally, there are trends towards abilities that are convenient to use. One standard method of creating such Nen abilities is the 'Nen Beast'. It is an ability to employ a beast created from aura.
Many take the form of living things like beasts, birds, or fish; among them, those in the shape of humans are also called 'Nen Dolls'. It's not particularly rare, meaning it's a very orthodox ability. If it were just creating this ability, it seemed like even I could do it.
However, to fulfill my dream, there are conditions I must incorporate at a minimum.
One: It must be a Conjuration-type Nen Doll.
Two: It must possess a special ability to share senses.
Three: It must be able to maintain a constantly activated state.
Even grouping them as Nen Beasts, there are types depending on the user's category. It can be said there are mainly three types: 'Emission', 'Manipulation', and 'Conjuration'.
Emission Nen Beasts are power types. Emission users, who excel at releasing aura from their bodies, can pour a lot of aura into the Nen Beast. This allows them to increase the beast's output, extend its activation time and range of action, and create multiple beasts at once.
Manipulation Nen Beasts allow for precise control. It is possible to give them complex commands, and it's easy to create 'Automatic' types that move according to a preset program even when out of the user's sight. Another strength is that control doesn't easily degrade even when creating multiple beasts.
Conjuration Nen Beasts have poor compatibility with both Manipulation and Emission, and their raw performance is low. Instead, they can reproduce the beast made of aura as a material object. The conjured object is indistinguishable from the real thing and can be seen by ordinary people who are not Nen users. Also, they have the property of easily accepting special abilities.
If one simply seeks combat power, there is no need to go out of the way to conjure and materialize the Nen Beast. Even as an aura construct, the damage dealt to the opponent is the same. This type of Nen Beast is often used as a 'trick' to falsify information and deceive the enemy's eyes by materializing it.
The type I seek falls under this 'Conjuration Nen Beast'. Because more than anything, I prioritize the reproducibility of the human body. Combat ability can be secondary. There is meaning in materializing a human body that is identical to the real thing.
The problem is that I am a Manipulator. I have no anxiety regarding the controllability of the Nen Beast. Since I'm compatible with Emission, power should also be fine. However, I have bad compatibility with the crucial Conjuration type.
Looking at the Six Types Diagram, it is said that for every step one moves away from their own type, the acquisition rate for that type's abilities drops by 20%. As a Manipulator, I am 'Manipulation 100%', 'Emission 80%', and 'Conjuration 60%'.
In other words, I can only reproduce it with about half the precision of the performance I could have demonstrated with 100% if I were a Conjurer. This difference is not something that can be ignored.
There is a concept called 'Memory' (Capacity) as a reason why one cannot simply create any ability they desire exactly as they please. Humans have a fixed limit on the Nen abilities they can learn according to their respective talents. If one tries to learn an ability with powerful effects, they use a corresponding amount of memory, and one cannot create an ability that exceeds this limit.
Talent has directionality depending on the individual. That is the six categories; if one tries to create an ability that deviates from their own category, they must use much more memory. And once this ability is created, it cannot be undone. If one wastes memory by creating a haphazard ability, it will be irreversible.
One ability in my memory was called 'Double'. This was an ability to conjure a human being exactly like oneself. This could also be called a type of Nen Beast. It is very similar to the ability I am trying to create. Or rather, I created mine using this as a hint.
The user of this 'Double' was an Enhancer. The category acquisition rates relevant to the operation of a Nen Beast for an Enhancer are 'Conjuration 60%', 'Manipulation 60%', and 'Emission 80%'. It was an ability that required high precision in the incompatible Conjuration and Manipulation types, and it is thought that he wasted that much memory on it.
It is a case that could be called a 'failure example of ability creation', where he could have been stronger if he had simply created an ability belonging to Enhancement. Even knowing that, I am about to commit the exact same mistake.
Still, I could not yield. I can't think of any other way. Even if I use up all my memory, I must create this ability.
The name of the ability is 'Idolatry'. It conjures the form I desire and shares senses with that Nen Beast. Human body conjuration and sensory sharing—if I were a Conjurer, the content of this ability wouldn't be that difficult. Complete sharing of the five senses would be a high hurdle, but it shouldn't be at the level of impossible.
Just because it deviates from my category doesn't mean I absolutely cannot learn it. If it is an ability created with the user's strong desire, it can sometimes be learned, although power and precision will drop. I decided to bet on that possibility.