Notice: Before we begin, I’d just like to say, this isn’t fanfiction, this isn’t headcanon, nothing of the sort. Furthermore I don’t want this to turn into a block of text stroking my own ego- this is as much of me explaining my personality traits as it is me trying to understand myself in another way. Finally, this is me watching a show and being very inspired by the combat and magic system, and seeing what I’d be. In this I hope to propose a really cool concept I’ve thought of that’s as much of a reflection of me as it is what I wish to work on, because that’s all I hope to do. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s begin in talking about Nen, what my nen classification is, and what my abilities I think would be.
So first off, what is Nen? For those that haven’t seen hunterxhunter I won’t spoil anything but I will give a brief explanation of Nen. Nen is described as the lifeblood or energy of all living things, that is naturally exuded as they live and breathe. It manifests through aura, which needs no explanation I feel. There are those that can see, manipulate, and harness this energy for any number of things. Harnessing nen results in actions that are amplified to staggering degrees. You can strengthen things using nen, blast nen, use nen to change the nature of things, create Nen objects, use it to manipulate and control objects, and many others. The way Nen can be visualised in these respects is as a hexagon. enhancers at the topmost point, specialists at the bottommost point, manipulators and conjurers to the left and right of specialists respectively, and transmuters and emitters to the left and right of enhancers respectively. This is how nen types are mapped. enhancers and specialists are opposites, as are manipulators and emitters, and transmuters and conjurers. Furthermore, everyone has an innate ability to learn a certain type of Nen. Some may be born with enhancers as their main type, some may be born with transmuter, etc. etc. If you are born as an enhancer, you can learn enhancer type nen abilities the best and easiest, followed by emitter and transmuter abilities. This is how different Nen types interact with each other. As for how this is applied, that’s when we take a look at basic nen techniques. So I mentioned that nen exists and works by exuding from the body, and that in order to use it like hunters in hunterxhunter do, you need to use basic nen techniques in order to harness your nen. The first is ten. This is when you control your aura in a small barrier around you. This improves defences, slows aging, and conserves your aura around your body, acting as a bit of a barrier against physical and Nen attacks. Next is Zetsu. This is similar to ten but instead of forming a small barrier, it conceals and draws in aura, not letting it escape. This naturally conceals your presence and boosts recovery. Next is Ren. Ren increases your aura output by a very large margin and is used to ‘power up’ or to show off your aura in order to intimidate or match in some capacity. Finally from the basic techniques we have Hatsu. This is how your specific nen type manifests.
There are also many advanced techniques but for the sake of brevity I’ll keep things simple. Now, I believe myself to be a specialist, and this is because of a few factors. I’ve always been individualistic, ever since I was a kid. I’d much prefer if I could do group projects and pretty much anything on my own rather with others all throughout my life. Even when I was in group projects or working in a group or team I’d often do my own thing. This wasn’t always a good thing. I was a hockey player for a large portion of my life, and you do need to work with others at some point in your life, and I had difficulty doing things in a group and for the betterment of the group- even now I’ll do things that I believe will benefit the group and myself in total, and when someone tells me I shouldn’t be doing something a certain way, I can rarely understand the worth of their point of view, even though I understand why they’d feel that way. In any case, I’ve also been told by my friends and even just people around me that I’m very good at convincing people and explaining things. Being charismatic is also a staple of specialists, and while I might not have a silver tongue so to speak, I’m still quite good at persuading people. Lastly if there's one thing that’s indicative of a specialist, it’s a jack of all trades, master of none kind of person. This has been something I’ve been identifying with since I was a little kid. I never was really good at one thing, I was just really decent at a bunch of things. Even now this remains to be true. I was raised with the idea that being a well rounded individual is one of the best things you can be in life, and well, I’ve achieved that goal. Now what? In any case, this is something else that’s a blessing and a curse. I can get the hang of pretty much anything with minimal effort and time put into it, which while this is great for hobbies, it isn’t good for longevity. It’s hard to fully commit to something when you can get just about good enough to do most normal things with it with minimal effort and time put in. Now you feel like if you want to really improve you have to put much much more effort into something, and if that’s the case why don’t I just learn something else? I won’t play the world’s smallest violin for you, but I hope this makes my case for aligning myself with the specialist class.
Now I’d like to get into my 3 main special abilities.
First I’d like to explain what I call my refracted arsenal. Throughout my life I’ve had to grapple with the fact that I was born male. To say the least, this isn’t very fun. My identity has been shot since my birth, and I’ve had to claw my way out of a sullen hellish pit just to have a grasp of a Xerox of a Xerox of what I could’ve been. Furthermore, because my view of myself as a jack of all trades is one that is both a blessing and a curse, I frequently enjoy pondering on what alternate versions of myself could’ve been. Maybe if I wasn’t mentally and emotionally crippled from the outset and my body and biology* aligned with my mind, I could’ve found passion early on in life in a specific field in one of my now interests. I wonder what could’ve happened if that’s the case, how my life would play out. I would use this deep emotional connection with myself or others and my possible alternative selves as a catalyst for combat. Calling upon a version of what I could’ve been or what I’ve seen someone do in the moment in order to help me fight. It’s a bit like Kite’s crazy slots, but instead of a random gamble, it’s however I’m feeling in the moment and it’s deeply connected to my mental and emotional state. Furthermore, when calling upon this ability it will change once I’ve used up the weapon or ability I’ve taken on, it switches to another one as I need it to. And I do need to switch weapons/abilities constantly. If I don’t, it runs the risk of myself slipping into the identity of the person I was or observed and possibly losing control.This additionally would allow me to be pretty versatile in combat in terms of my fighting style, but it would demand my mental and emotional capacity as well as my constant switching.
Second, what I’d like to call fracturepoints. This is really more of a pt 2 of the first ability, as they go together, but I would be able to activate them separately. This would allow me to access mental ‘save points’, calling upon the mental and emotional state of a version of myself or others from the past that didn’t make it into who I am today. These would essentially be brief moments in my life where I or someone else felt and acted a certain way, and I can call upon these states to strengthen my resolve, sharpen my senses, bring myself together, or otherwise. I feel I don’t need to really explain this one’s significance, as I’m pretty sure everyone has had ‘phases’ of their lives that haven’t made it to who they are now, as well as moments of their life where they felt or thought something extremely strongly. The reason why this is significant to me personally is because these were parts of my life that I was desperately needing as I didn’t even have a skeleton of an identity. I was grasping for straws throughout my life and now that they’re lost it feels like I’ve wasted parts of my life- and not just due to these moments. And this allows me to have a use for them yet. Once it’s done though, and I’ve broken out of the mindset, I enter a state of forced Zetsu for half the time spent.
Finally, we have what is probably one of my favourite things in a story: an all or nothing card, or in other words: big power, bigger consequences. This ability would be called ‘What I Could’ve Been’. I’ve introduced the concept of alternate selves and past selves, and now this is merging those two, with a little spice on top. What I Could’ve Been only works if for an extended period of time I have been spending at least 10% of my aura per day towards imagining and pondering what my life could’ve been like- what I could’ve been like, if things had gone differently- if I had been born better, if I had the knowledge I had now back then, if I made different decisions, etc. And once I need this ability and activate it, it creates a formless clone in the shape of me. She fights alongside me, for the duration of 1 second per day I have spent pondering and using my aura for the purpose above. She would be in every way a perfect, idealised version of myself. However, what’s the cost? For every second she is active, I am put in a state of Zetsu for an hour once she’s deactivated.
I feel like these abilities really hit home for me personally, they’re emotionally charged, and they allow me to fill out that jack of all trades part of me that I really identify with. And they’re not overpowered in the slightest- I need to aptly assess every situation and understand myself and my emotions down to a tee just to have a decent chance with my abilities. It’s a large gamble that puts a lot of the weight of every encounter on what I need to do before an encounter. I’m not just preparing for a battle like Batman would, I’m psychoanalysing my own and others’ emotional state in order to gain an advantage. I love this concept, so much.