The man feared as 'Tabakal the Bound Lion' in the previous war was, in reality, just a single child soldier. His family had been murdered by a militant organization with extremist religious ideologies; he was forcibly converted, had a bomb implanted in his body, and was cast into a conflict dubbed a 'Holy War.' It was a common story, nothing unusual.
He was a mere grunt, treated as a disposable pawn. Driven by the singular desire to survive, he had killed countless people. He had no room for guilt. However, as the life-or-death struggles repeated day after day, his spirit began to wear thin.
The only thing that sustained him was the existence of a friend.
"Pfft, hahaha...! You're a genius! A genius of pranks!"
Among the gathered child soldiers, there was one boy he was close to. Living under constant surveillance, they had no entertainment, and even private conversation was restricted. Their only joy was the meager rations and the occasional permitted chat. During those times, Jack would often play the fool. No matter how silly the joke, his friend would always laugh uproariously.
"Don't tell anyone, this is just between us... My other family members were killed, but my mother was pregnant and staying with relatives, so she should be safe... I hope."
Everyone was starved for humanity. They tried to believe they weren't just tools for killing. Those trivial exchanges—telling jokes and laughing together—were the only things that quenched their thirst.
"I wonder if it'll be a brother or a sister. I hope it's a brother... When all 'this' is over, I'm going to see them. Why don't you come too? You can show my brother your best pranks."
When the war ended, only a few child soldiers remained. Jack's best friend was not among them. Though he had fought to live, once he was liberated from the fighting, he began to wonder why he was still alive.
He lived for the sake of the one promise that continued to smolder in his heart. He began posting prank videos online, broadcasting them to the world. He continued to perform his pranks solely to make that one person laugh—someone whose face and name he didn't know, someone he didn't even know was still alive.
Eventually, he gained popularity and climbed the ranks to become a top iTuber. Many people who resonated with his feelings gathered around him, and his influence grew. Finally, Jack managed to find his best friend's younger brother.
His time, which had been frozen since the war, was finally beginning to move again. And then, at that very moment, he was dragged into this nightmare of an offline meeting. If he were here alone, he wouldn't have panicked. But his friend's brother had been taken hostage. Seeing that boy, he couldn't just stand by.
Jack stood up. He had sustained injuries so severe that it would have been normal for him to be incapacitated, and he had even lost consciousness for a brief moment, yet he stood up nonetheless. He was surprised by it himself. Velvet, who had driven him to this point, likely thought she had defeated him. For the first time, agitation flickered across her face.
He was maintaining consciousness through sheer willpower alone. He didn't have the strength to move a single step. However, Velvet remained wary of that extraordinary intensity. Sometimes, the mental strength of a Nen user can surpass the physical limits of their body.
"Just wait... Your uncle is coming to save you right now..."
Jack pulled out the last turban he had been hiding. This one was stained red by the blood flowing from his wounds.
[RED SNAKE COME ON]
The attack speed was incomparable to before. Its linear zigzagging motion was like red lightning as it lunged at Velvet. Yet, no matter how fast it was, it was still just a single attack. She reacted quickly and successfully countered it.
However, the edges of her skates failed to slice through the turban. Because it was soaked in Jack's own blood, the turban had achieved a deeper level of synchronization with the user. The conductivity of his aura had increased dramatically, boosting the reinforcement rate.
Because her counter failed, Velvet's balance wavered slightly. Jack didn't miss that opening. The red cloth snake finally coiled around Velvet. In an instant, her entire body was bound.
He tried to tighten the grip to knock her unconscious, but Velvet resisted with all her might. Controlling cold air, she froze the turban. Because it was soaked in blood, the cold had a significant effect on it.
The blood began to freeze. While the binding didn't loosen, Jack was no longer able to properly control the frozen sections. In that case, Jack used the cloth snake to lift Velvet high into the sky. If he slammed her into the ground with enough force to shatter the ice, Velvet wouldn't walk away unscathed.
Jack had no intention of holding back. It wasn't because he hated Velvet, but rather because he acknowledged her strength as a warrior. If he went easy on her, there was a risk he wouldn't be able to break through her Ken defense. Just as she had done to him, he had to attack with the intent to kill, or there would be no victory.
However, that action was taken because he recognized his enemy as a threat. But what if an unrelated third party intervened?
In the spot where Jack was about to slam Velvet down, a single young girl was suddenly standing. She had her arms spread wide, intending to catch the falling Velvet.
'A child...?'
It was a reckless move. It might soften the impact slightly, but she would suffer severe injuries that were in no way worth the benefit. It wouldn't be surprising if she died.
If Jack still had the same spirit he possessed seven years ago, he wouldn't have hesitated. He would have continued the attack without slowing down, striking the intervening child along with his target. That was the man he was before becoming an iTuber.
His attack stopped. The block of ice protecting Velvet rapidly lost momentum, and Six successfully caught her.
"Sorry I'm late, ssle."
Jack gasped at the voice coming from behind him. But he wasn't given time to turn around. Arms like logs wrapped around his neck, and he lost consciousness before he could resist.
We somehow managed to defeat Jack. Just when it seemed like Velvet would have an easy victory, Jack's furious comeback was terrifying. If a single thing had gone differently, Velvet would likely be the one with major injuries right now. It was a battle that showed the level of combat between true Nen users.
Looking at it this way, maybe Jack wasn't such a bad guy. Blade said that if he were truly evil at his core, he wouldn't have hesitated during that last attack. Maybe the guess about him having a hostage was right too. I think he was also a victim forced to fight against his will.
It was a victory that left a bad taste in my mouth. On top of that, I'm currently being scolded by Blade and Noah.
"Jumping into a place like that is beyond reckless, ssle!"
"Exactly! If something happened to Mama... I felt like my heart was going to stop!"
I hadn't really thought through my actions at that moment; my body had just moved on its own. But it wasn't like I was being self-destructive. Since Six's body can be repaired with aura, I thought it would work out somehow.
I had explained this constitution to Blade and the others beforehand, but I hadn't revealed everything in detail. Apparently, enhancing self-healing falls under the category of Enhancement, but even that has its limits. Naturally, no matter how great a user is, they say you'll die if you take a fatal wound.
In Six's case, the body is being reconstructed by aura. This is likely a different ability, not Enhancement.
I only have the knowledge of Nen that I've picked up here, but I can tell that I'm a very unusual existence. It's not a secret I absolutely must keep, but I was worried about whether it was okay to speak so openly about it.
I'm not very good at lying. Blade and Velvet have probably realized that I'm hiding something about my abilities. Noah, maybe not.
However, perhaps because there's a manners among Nen users not to pry into the abilities of those who aren't enemies, they didn't ask further. So, they probably think of me as an Enhancer with slightly high recovery power.