Time rewinds to before Gon's group was approached by Kazsule's team about a joint front.
This was the period when game progress—which had been advancing smoothly despite the death march—completely stalled, and everyone was accumulating frustration.
While visiting various towns and testing various in-game items, they encountered a certain card.
Designated Card No. 33: "Hormone Cookie."
Its effect changed the gender of whoever ate it for 24 hours. Killua, finding it amusing, suggested everyone try it.
"I'll go first since I suggested it. My prediction: not much different from now."
"Well, you and Gon are too young age-wise to change too much. Your height might even increase instead."
While other members predicted minimal change like Killua and Biscuit, only Gon predicted fairly significant change.
"I think he'll become closer to Illumi. Maybe his hair will get silky smooth?"
"Ugh! Don't say creepy stuff. Though that bastard brother does take after Mom."
Though Killua suddenly got cold feet hearing Gon's prediction, he steeled himself and tossed the cookie in his mouth, swallowing without savoring much.
"It's annoyingly good for a regular cookie—whoa?!"
Changes immediately began appearing. As Biscuit predicted, he grew slightly. His hair became nearly straight with a slight outward curl, and his sharp eyes became even larger and rounder.
A beautiful girl reminiscent of a kitten—like Killua and Illumi combined and divided—was born.
"Ugh, my whole body feels itchy and gross! And my voice changed too?! Seriously, what happened to me?!"
Given a mirror while shaken by the discomfort exceeding expectations, Killua was shocked at how closely he resembled Illumi, just as Gon predicted.
Still, once calm, he examined his transformed body and aura with interest. Discovering even his physical abilities had increased, he realized this was completely a superior version of his original self.
"I'll say it again—at your and Gon's age, girls often have higher physical abilities. From what I can feel, you'll definitely be stronger in male form once you grow, so relax."
Finally reassured by Biscuit's assessment, Killua sat down weakly and urged those around to increase victims by asking who was next.
"I'll go next. Excluding Gon and Killua, as the youngest remaining, I shouldn't change much."
Since cookies apparently manipulated gender, Gon was excluded. Kurapika raised his hand and bit into the cookie without hesitation.
Taking completely after his mother, Kurapika secretly hoped to see his late father's features while quietly waiting for the discomfort Killua mentioned.
"...? ...? ...?"
Tilting his head at the discomfort that never came, he looked around at Gon's group, but they only tilted their heads looking at Kurapika, returning no reaction.
"What? Is there a defective one in here?"
Leorio began examining the cookie at the complete lack of change, but Gon asked Kurapika somewhat awkwardly:
"Kurapika, um... did it grow?"
"Mm? ...?!"
When Kurapika casually reached toward his groin, the moment he touched, he involuntarily pulled his hand back, face turning bright red.
Understanding everything from that sight, Leorio and Killua burst out laughing. Other members also smiled at fidgeting Kurapika.
"You changed even less than me, seriously Kurapika?! Even as a guy you look like that?!"
"No wonder we didn't notice at first! Hell, there was even a chance we thought you were a girl but you were actually a guy!!"
Biscuit silenced the two laughing too uproariously. Kurapika, as if in retaliation, shoved a cookie into Leorio's mouth.
"Mngh! So this is the discomfort—what the hell?!"
Leorio's change was dramatic. His already good physique transformed into a feminine curvy body.
His face became somewhat wild yet feminine, transforming into a short-haired, well-proportioned Takarazuka-style appearance.
"I see, so this is a woman's body. Actually becoming one, there's definitely more fat, and the joints—especially hip joint range of motion—is considerably wider. Educational."
He straightened his sunglasses with his finger, speaking with particular seriousness in his analysis, but it would've been quite dignified if his hands weren't grabbing his own plump breasts.
Though Goreinu should've been next by age, Biscuit—uncertain if effects would appear since she had body-transforming abilities like Gon—declined going last and ate the cookie.
"Oh my? Looks like it's taking effect."
Everyone imagined an arrival of muscle mass exceeding Biscuit's true form, but surprisingly, a frail beautiful boy with similar build to Kurapika appeared, wearing gothic lolita fashion.
"That's fraud! Why fewer muscles than female form?! Just transform back already!"
Though Biscuit's appearance now suited crossdressing, Killua protested vehemently. After checking her body for a while, she answered with a surprised expression:
"Shocking. This truly is my original male body. If I'd been born male, I couldn't have walked the martial path."
Muttering while looking in the mirror that it was wasteful despite being handsome with poor build, Biscuit shuddered at being terrifyingly weakened physically and in aura.
Finally, when Goreinu ate the hormone cookie and became female, a surprising fact was revealed.
"This is?! Not just improved aura quality—physical abilities significantly increased too!!"
Though not as extreme as Biscuit, Goreinu also had higher physical abilities in female form.
While Killua and Leorio burst into laughter at the appearance that looked like sloppy crossdressing, Goreinu's clear mind immediately began considering reproducing this phenomenon with a new Hatsu.
Goreinu had originally continued activities aiming to be an all-rounder Hunter rather than pure combat specialist.
However, the Hunter profession prioritized combat ability above all, and Goreinu himself wasn't disappointed enough in himself to give up on strength.
Moreover, the death march with Gon's group—the concrete sensation of surpassing yesterday's self each passing day—captivated Goreinu with irresistible charm like quality narcotics.
Having just experienced that, Goreinu couldn't discard this clear means to grow stronger before his eyes, even if it meant becoming female.
From that day, Goreinu ate hormone cookies and changed gender whenever he had time, desperately researching bodily changes and aura movements then.
Whether thanks to passion for growing stronger or innate talent was unclear, but it happened while gathering cards before the Razor rematch.
Beside Goreinu—who'd returned to male after the hormone cookie effect wore off—Pink Gorilla materialized in a female panther pose, casting sidelong glances.
Incidentally, Gon—who manipulated his own body—shouldn't have been affected by hormone cookies normally, but when he tried eating one, something mysterious occurred and he successfully changed sex.
That form was a beautiful young girl with black bob-cut hair. Muscles with nowhere to go gathered in the chest, truly becoming a loli with huge breasts.
At that compliance-risking appearance, Leorio and Killua's eyes were crushed by Kurapika and Biscuit, but Goreinu's eyes—lost in his own world—remained safe.
***
"...Um, what happened to him? Even as a mere acquaintance, I don't think that's his personality."
Receiving treatment from Leorio with ribs fully healed, Tsezguerra approached the court and asked Biscuit about Gorinu, who'd quickly had the ball stolen and resumed ball evasion.
Opposite Killua, who continued quiet evasion unchanged from before, Gorinu shouted with each move while evading balls with clearly wasteful motions.
That figure dancing while billowing the cheerleading uniform—if Kurapika's dance exemplified stillness and beauty, this was movement and joy.
"That's also a Hatsu restriction. In that form, reason's restraints release and mentality gets pulled toward femininity."
"(Wasa?)...I see. A restriction for obviously powering up from my perspective. Though it's to raise physical abilities, losing that intelligence I sensed from him seems wasteful."
"Funny thing is, regarding combat specifically, that form is overwhelmingly stronger regardless of physical abilities."
Goreinu's combat strength lay precisely in his chess-problem-like fighting style derived from his mind.
Utilizing two Nen beasts swapping himself and others, though lacking one-hit kills, he'd reliably corner and ultimately defeat opponents.
That style was undoubtedly powerful, with potential to eventually become a world-class fighter if he didn't neglect training.
That strength directly connected to his weakness: overthinking.
Opponent and self positioning, Nen beast positioning and manipulation, battle flow and development predictions—only significantly weaker opponents could be handled fully.
This was the limit Goreinu felt—stagnation from hesitation about not working on stronger opponents preventing breaking through his shell.
"Of course, even among world's finest, some are thought-centered overthinkers. But once you reach a certain ability level, you absolutely need instinctive flashes that overpower reason somewhere. Gorinu embodies cool head, hot heart—reason and instinct fused in balance."
Though Gorinu took chaotic actions and speech, Goreinu's mind and thinking hadn't disappeared.
His unchanged clear mind accurately compared enemy and allied forces, then derived the best strategy to take.
After deriving it, he'd take slightly different actions.
To a degree not disadvantaging himself, not giving opponents advantage.
Off-theory movements created stronger dissonance for stronger fighters, and that dissonance led to minor mistakes.
Razor, trying to receive the outfield return, smiled wryly while watching the ball Gorinu—who'd blocked his path before he knew it—uppercut while roaring.
(Despite looking chaotic, he kept positioning to steal balls without interfering with the other one. Tough opponent despite absurd appearance.)
Though Killua barely caught the ball, Gorinu's hands swelled bright red, hanging limply and powerless.
"Shocking~☆ Blackie being unharmed was definitely because you held back! Can't throw like this."
When Gorinu—staring at his arms regretfully—signaled Killua with his eyes, Killua also looked at Gon before raising aura as if resolved.
"Razor, you can dodge if it's tough."
Killua transformed raised aura into electricity, cloaking the normally insulated ball in aura to electrify it.
(Transforming aura to electricity?! Moreover, controlling it so the ball gets electrified purely by cloaking in aura—monster's companions were monsters.)
Though direct attacks were forbidden since the match was dodgeball, cloaking balls in aura like Razor did wasn't prohibited—manipulating the ball itself wasn't banned.
The violently crackling ball didn't seem safe to touch. Though provoked, Razor decided to evade and braced.
"Take this, you muscle gorilla!!"
Rather than throwing, Killua kicked the ball toward Razor like a volley shot.
The strike from legs stronger than arms truly became lightning approaching Razor. Though power itself was fine, hating electrical damage, he evaded with margin.
Behind ball-kicking Killua stood White Gorilla, whose body hair had changed to bikini pattern.
"Dosei!!"
Gorinu—having swapped with secretly re-conjured White Gorilla—returned the ball flying to the outfield with a dropkick.
"Ow!!"
Though most electricity exploded and vanished into Gorinu, the ball—generating further momentum from rebound force of Killua's kick—approached, catching Razor off guard.
"(Attacking without pause despite damage?!) Guh?!"
Though Razor reacted despite being caught off guard, remaining electricity made muscles spasm and he couldn't catch cleanly, dropping it.
"Razor out!"
"How you like that?! This is Killu-chan and my combination attack!!"
Though slightly scorched with standing hair, Gorinu pointed at Razor, rewarding infield-remaining Killua with a blown kiss.
Watching Killua disgusted by the blown kiss and Gorinu—who'd swapped with White Gorilla and returned infield—Razor smiled ferociously and grabbed the rolling ball.
"Never thought you two, not Gon, would catch me off guard. Back!"
"Razor declares Back, match resumes with Razor team ball..."
When Razor snapped his fingers once, the manifested Nen beasts returned to aura.
The wavering aura returned straight to Razor. His already abundant aura swelled further, scattering overwhelming pressure.
"...What... incredible..."
"Wait! Going that far is excessive! You don't intend to let anyone clear?!"
Tsezguerra showed a despairing expression, struck by the aura. Biscuit voiced criticism at the excessively high difficulty.
"Of course, normally I wouldn't go this far. It's fulfilling a request from Ging—Greed Island's director and my benefactor—to not hold back if Gon came."
Game scenario-wise, if they had ability to win completely against the pirates, they'd be allowed to get "Strip of Beach."
Razor was merely positioned as a hidden boss, present in Soufrabi so imprisoned pirate criminals wouldn't get too wild in the real world.
"Relax, I won't participate next challenge. Even if you lose this time, I'll let you get the card."
Though Killua and Gorinu showed anger at Razor's condescending words, the two directly facing him understood they absolutely couldn't win.
That's how strong serious Razor was—his prisoner background's fearsomeness gushed out as killing intent.
Thump—
"Ah..."
The first to notice were three people: Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio.
Among those present, only they knew pre-weakened Gon and could notice from touching his aura most closely.
Thump———
Before anyone knew, Gin had released battle stance and started grooming, even yawning leisurely beside standing Gon.
Then Razor and Biscuit sensed something, followed by Gorinu and Tsezguerra involuntarily looking at Gon.
THUMP!!————
The injured muscles in deep sleep, through a long period of dormancy, were finally about to complete super-recovery.
***
Author's Note:
Another small supplement about Gorinu Mode:
Regarding restrictions and costs mentioned in comments: when Goreinu himself uses it, only his personality changes—almost no other costs exist.
That's because the ability doesn't power him up—it's merely an ability to sex-change because becoming Gorinu enables power-up.
Sex-changing others would require various restrictions increasing difficulty, but he figured sex-changing himself—which would normally only cause weakening—needs no restrictions or costs.
I personally think mid-Heisei era was the golden age of comedy variety shows.
***
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