In District Eight, there is a one-eyed old man who sells a kind of badge that can, for a certain period of time, enhance a person's abilities.
As long as the badge is pinned to the body, it can strengthen one's speed, strength, and stamina. If the person being enhanced already possesses the ability of "Nen," then their "Nen" will also be enhanced.
After obtaining this information, the Spider leader became very interested in this ability. He spent some time finding that shop, then spent a bit more time disguising himself as a rich but brainless customer, and became a regular there.
The one-eyed old bastard had no name, but after a period of observation, the Spider leader realized that those "badges" were not made by the old man.
Originally planning to just "borrow" the ability and leave it at that, the Spider leader changed his plan after seeing the boy who was being disguised as an idiot, as if he had discovered an interesting toy.
But after taking the boy out of the box, he realized that this ability was really not easy to "borrow."
The boy was too badly injured—fractures in all four limbs, with the right hand almost completely shattered; his chest bore marks of being cut open and then stitched back together; there were more than thirty wounds all over his body, and after being soaked in filth for a long time, they had rotted and begun to stink—fortunately, that mass of fire had burned away the hopelessly rotten flesh, so it no longer smelled.
But the boy's appearance as he slept quietly with his eyes closed was calm and peaceful—like an angel whose wings had been cut off, soaked in hell with only his head exposed.
Considering the sunk cost, the Spider leader could only swallow the bitter pill in distress—if the target whose ability was borrowed died, it would count as borrowing for nothing. He had no choice but to use Nen to fix the boy's broken arms and legs, helplessly took off a piece of clothing to wrap him up, bundled the boy into a ball, and carried him away.
It was laughable—on one of his rare outings, the Spider leader didn't kill anyone, but instead saved someone and brought him back.
...
I… who am I?
I don't know, but I should have the name Kisho—an ordinary person who originally lived on Earth, yet not ordinary. What made me not ordinary was inheriting my family's ALS. I was forced to accept my fate early on; there wasn't a single thing an ordinary person could do that I could do. I could only lie there and watch myself rot bit by bit, dying before I even reached twenty.
I… where am I?
I don't know. Anyway, it's not a hospital. Judging by the number of scene changes, the first time I woke up I was in a box, the second time I woke up—this place seems to be an abandoned… building?
Why didn't I die?
I don't know, but I probably did die—I watched the heart monitor connected to that body turn into a straight line, and only after quite some time did it disappear. As for how I saw it, maybe… as a soul?
This place, this world—what kind of world is it?
I don't know. Writing I can't understand and can't read, strange abilities I can't comprehend, and—despite being gravely injured and on the verge of death—a body filled with power, a sensation I have never felt before.
...
The boy gently opened his eyes and tentatively moved his hands and feet. Excruciating pain flooded him, yet this pain was something he had never experienced before.
He was actually a little happy.
Then he saw that young man he had seen just before closing his eyes last time, sitting in a corner of the room, white candles lit around him, flipping through a book.
With no one bothering him now, and no life-or-death urgency hanging over him, he opened his eyes wide and carefully examined the man's appearance.
He wasn't wearing the suit from last time, but a black leather coat with a white collar—worn improperly, exposing his chest. His hair was slicked back, and there was an inverted cross tattoo on his forehead—it would look a bit better if his hair weren't styled like that.
Last time he looked like a student somewhere between high school and university. This time… he didn't know whether it was because he wasn't deliberately restraining himself—or disguising himself—but just looking at his eyes and the tattoo on his forehead made a chill rise from the depths of one's heart.
Not a good person.
Perhaps because his naked stare was too much, the young man reading the book slowly lifted his head and met his gaze. The corners of his mouth curved upward, and he closed the book and walked over to the boy.
Kisho—let's call him Kisho for now—heard the young man speak, saying something he couldn't understand at all, and revealed a confused expression.
The young man frowned.
He slowly raised his hand. Smoke appeared in his palm, then condensed into a book with a black cover, upon which was painted a bloody handprint.
Kisho widened his eyes in surprise.
This ability…
He—this body of his—seemed to have such an ability as well, only it worked intermittently. The usage was somewhat like imagining a book in one's hand: when it worked, one could really summon a book, but when it didn't… well, nothing happened.
Inside the book were words that only he could recognize and could see clearly even without light, along with standard piano sheet music. It was ridiculous. No one knew that in his previous life, someone who couldn't even sit up was actually very good at music. His greatest dream was to one day sit up and personally play the piano pieces he had composed countless times in his mind. And the title of his book matched that dream so well it made one want to laugh—"The Fantasizing Musician."
Composed of four segments—"Song of the Whirlwind," "Song of Clear Water," "Song of Raging Fire," and "Song of the Earth"—together forming "Song of the Four Seasons."
A slightly chuunibyou set of titles, and also a dream he had wanted his entire life but never had the chance to personally experience.
By opening the book and singing it once in his mind, he could summon a badge. Singing it several more times would still only summon one badge, but if multiple songs were sung consecutively, the summoned badge would gain an additional color.
He didn't want his book to be stained with filth or blood, so he tried skipping the step of summoning the book. On the thirteenth day after waking up, he succeeded in directly condensing a badge—although doing so was twice as exhausting as summoning the book first and then the badge.
But he didn't know the purpose of the badge, nor could he test it. Wearing it on his body seemed to have no effect—he woke up in a box, and it nearly hurt him to death and made him sick. The only person he could see was that one-eyed old man. He couldn't understand what the old man said, and the old man couldn't understand what he said either; they could only stare at each other with wide eyes.
One day, after the box was opened, he saw the one-eyed old man standing to the side holding a knife. Just as the old man was about to bring the knife down, he inexplicably created a badge right in front of him.
The old man picked up the badge and examined it for a long time, then put down the knife.
After that, every day he would create badges of various colors based on the number of times the old man knocked on the box. Sometimes he could exchange them for a bit of spoiled food or water that tasted terrible.
He lived a life even worse than when he had been lying in bed watching himself rot. He cursed a hundred times in his heart but had no target to receive those curses, thinking that this life of his would amount to nothing more than being a boxed boy forever, with the only thing he could do each day being condense a badge, condense a badge, condense a badge—until, in the long and endless wait of despair, he saw this young man.
This young man also had a book in his hand and was flipping through it—could it be that everyone in this strange world had a book? Some kind of world where everyone studies hard together?
It wasn't strange that Kisho's thoughts ran wild. Anyone who spent their whole life lying in bed staring at the ceiling would think wildly too.
The young man seemed to finally find what he was looking for. He glanced at the book, then at the boy lying on the ground, and purple light gathered in his eyes.
Stared at by that purple light, Kisho felt as if he had been seen through to the depths of his heart.
"What is your name?"
He heard the young man's words. They were still words he couldn't understand, yet strangely, he did understand them.
Kisho felt his worldview refresh. In an instant, possibilities like "aliens," "monsters," "telepathy," and "quantum entanglement" flashed through his mind. But the young man beside him closed the book again, glanced at him, and walked out the door.
Before long, he returned, bringing a woman with him.
The girl who walked in behind the young man was very beautiful and had blonde hair, but for some reason, Kisho felt that the way she looked at him wasn't very friendly.
The girl walked over to Kisho, bent down, and placed her hand on his shoulder—by the way, Kisho was finally not naked anymore. He had put on an overly long shirt, the kind that covered everything from top to bottom. Although the emptiness underneath made him very embarrassed, but… if you can't see it, it's fine… right…?
Sorry, he was thinking nonsense again.
But Kisho didn't know if it was just his imagination—he saw the girl's gaze flick toward his lower body, then she revealed a cold smile that he couldn't tell whether it was mocking, disdainful, or something else.
She looked at the young man again, as if waiting.
The young man started flipping through the book again, purple light emerging in his eyes, then he looked at Kisho.
"What is your name?"
Still words he couldn't understand, yet did understand.
Kisho honestly answered, "Kisho." Then he paused and continued, "Thank you for saving me."
At this moment, a blond boy appeared in the room out of nowhere, and his sudden voice startled Kisho.
The blond boy said something, but Kisho couldn't understand it.
Kisho felt dejected. So he could only understand the words of this young man in front of him. He had thought he had suddenly gained some special ability to understand all languages.
The blond boy said, "It's not any of the fifteen most commonly used lingua francas on the continent."
The young man looked at the girl and asked, "Pakunoda, can you read his memories?"
He couldn't understand this sentence either. Kisho felt dejected again—so what he had awakened was a Schrödinger-type ability: before hearing it, he didn't know whether he could understand it or not.
"Yes, I can read his memories from before, in the box," the girl said. Perhaps the things in the box were too disgusting, so she didn't describe them in detail. She paused, then continued, "But the part you mentioned, Boss—about him using four abilities to kill the one-eyed man—he doesn't have that memory."
"Oh?"
The young man uttered a sound filled with strong interest. This time Kisho understood—probably meaning "oh."
He felt a small surge of excitement.
The young man looked at the blond boy and said, "Go check it out. See if you can find any clues through his appearance."
The boy responded and left.
Kisho thought that what he responded probably meant "okay."
Memories and heart-voices don't need words or sounds to be recorded. The foolish boy's chaotic thoughts and ideas, along with his carefree optimism that had no idea what situation he was in, made the girl with her hand pressed on him show a bit more of a smile.
After giving his orders, the young man walked gracefully over and crouched down in front of the boy.
"Kisho."
The young man pronounced Kisho's name with a slight awkwardness.
Kisho knew he was saying his name, but couldn't help thinking: it sounded a bit like a Japanese person reading Chinese aloud.
"My name is Chrollo Lucilfer."
Kisho thought it sounded a little like an American name—Chrollo as the given name, Lucilfer as the family name.
He politely said, "Hello, Lucilfer."
"Hm." Chrollo nodded.
The meaning of this should be similar to "hm," right? Monosyllabic words really were easier to guess.
"Do you still remember what happened before you passed out?"
Kisho thought about it, then nodded.
"Then I'll get straight to the point. What is your ability?"