I grabbed into the nearby desk to steady myself. I couldn’t recognize the surroundings. I was in some sort of cave. But there was some furniture around, some lamps hanging from walls. The area was dark, with the most of the lamps being broken, but few still brightened the room with faint glow. On the edges of the walls were boxes, lined up randomly. The whole place looked like a bandit hideout.

Behind me was a large map. It took good part of the wall, being around two meters in the both proportions. The map… wasn’t of earth. There were few continents that resembled Africa and Australia, but they were upside down. But for some reason, despite how strange it was, something about it arose a vague sense of familiarity.

In front of me was an office desk. There was a chair behind it, but I hadn’t been sitting in it when I opened my eyes. Rather, I had been sprawled on the ground, with an unhealthy amount of vertigo.

Standing up properly, I tried get a clue of where I was as my eyes gradually adapted to the dim environment. Slowly, I regained a sense of reality.

That was when I saw it. A torn off leg laying in a puddle of blood. Following the trail of red, I spotted the body that it belonged to. It was in the mangled state, with its clothes in tethers. There was another body to my right. Despite the man not being in the same bloody state, his head had been smashed against the floor. Next to him lay an assault rifle, covered in blood.

I tried not to vomit, desperately pushing down the sick sensation that was rising up inside me. What the hell? What happened here? What could even do this to a multiple man armed with assault rifles?

What if the thing was still here, somewhere?

The thought sent shivers down my spine. If whatever caused this was still here, I couldn’t simply walk out of this cave. I needed to find a way to survive.

First thing I did was pick up the firearm and check the ammunition. I sighed in relief. The clips weren’t empty. I wasn’t certain if it could defend me from whatever killed those man. It probably wouldn’t. But at least I wasn’t completely defenseless.

Could a bear have done this? What else could?

Holding a weapon gave me some sense of security, causing some of the shock to dissipate and I finally noticed something concerning.

My grip felt off. Then I realized, my entire body felt strange. I looked down at my hands, not recognizing them as my own. I blinked. Approached the nearby lamp to see my body… this body more clearly, only to see myself covered in blood. Yet, I had no wounds. There were scars though. I lot of them. Neither posing a threat any longer, but that didn’t make them any less concerning.

I was wearing large overcoat, which alongside rest of my clothes were turned into rags. Clothes I never remembered wearing.

This wasn’t my body. How did it take me this long to notice?

What had happened? How did I end up into a body not my own? And what was this strange sensation enveloping me whole? It felt like a warm steam surrounded and danced around my body. It cycled around me, until converging in the top of my head and leaking out into the air.

It strangely reminded me of…

Struck with the realization, I whirled around, gazing at the map one more time. No way… I dug into the desk shelves, taking out random papers I found in it and placing them around the luminescent light near the map. I took a shaky breath. Those symbols… I couldn’t read any of them, yet their pattern was unmistakable. They were writing system of HunterxHunter world.

Taking a deep breath, I willed myself to calm down. It wasn’t time to be consumed by shock and confusion. I had to concentrate, lest I wanted to die. So I forced myself to gain control of the aura around me. I didn’t know if this was real or a fever dream. But if this was real, I was about to die before even coming across whatever monster was looming around here. I could feel the aura leaking off of me that soon lead to an exhaustion, and than to death.

Few more minutes passed, and I heard footsteps coming towards me. But I couldn’t stop now. Taking control of my aura had turned out to be surprisingly hard. It annoyingly eluded my grasp. Just a little more. I needed some more time. But I wasn’t done yet.

“My, my. What’s this?” a feminine voice slowly approached the cave. “So I wasn’t imagining things. A rare. You’re brimming with life. How did I even miss you?”

The creature stepped into the cave, crossing her eyes with me. She was a mix between a human and an insect. Short blond hair, thin build. But her arms and legs were long, segmented like ant's, and ended with three insectoid claws. Two insectoid wings extended from her back. She was wearing a white mask, and was dressed like a hooker.

Stolen story; please report.

“The queen will be pleased If I bring you to her.”

It was a chimera ant. There was no doubt about it. Quite familiar one as well. But there was no time to be lost in panic. I needed to survive. To find a way to avoid being goddamn dinner.

“But maybe I can…” she paused, seemingly conflicted about something. “No, I can’t. Yonju would kill me. Damn it, he can surely feel that as well. He’ll be headed this way.”

Somehow, I could understand what she was saying. A rare, she called me? Chimera ants called the nen users like that. Ones that had more aura, life-force, and therefore a rare’s flesh was more nutritious for them to consume. In a way, a delicacy and a priority for the queen that wished to give birth to a strong king.

I tightened the grasp on the gun. Would this be enough? I doubted that. Those guys had emptied quite lot of bullets. Yet, I couldn’t even see a scratch on her. What to do. How do I deal with her? Best way would have been to avoid her in the first place. Bullets would be useless. With barely any control over my aura, defeating her would be close to impossible. On the other hand, escape would be impossible as well.

Fuck it.

I raised the riffle, emptying the last few bullets onto her. She didn’t even try to dodge. The chimera ant simply raised her arm and let the exoskeleton deflect the bullets. There was barely a scratch left.

“How futile. You think you’re safe for now just because I can’t kill you?” she laughed. “You know, a broken arm or leg wouldn’t really make you any less presentable.”

Fuck. I’m screwed.

Taking another deep breath, I decided to turn back to only remaining weapon in my possession; The aura around me. Goddammit! Only if it stopped leaking off me already.

“Hmm? Cat got your tongue? Are you that scared that you can’t even attempt to run?”

A way to beat her. I needed to find that. The chances were low. Most newly awakened hunters would not stand a chance. I could only hope that whatever situation resulted in me ending here meant there was something special in this damn body. Did only I die? Or this guy? Or both? If most-mortem nen was valid in this situation, maybe it could result in something useful for me. Maybe I could draw power with some sort of nen restrictions. Would that be even possible? What if I could awaken ability to teleport? However slim the chances were, they were only ones I had.

I felt a grip around my shoulder. “How boring. Maybe this will get a reaction out of you?”

She tightened the grip, and pain shot through my arm. I screamed, lost balance, and fell backwards. I hit my head, sending another bout of dizziness through me. My head throbbed, but it at least distracted my from the pain.

“Now that’s little better. I like those sounds.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

It hurt. But knowing what was about to come was seriously shaking up my sanity. Desperation was assaulting my mind. I forced myself to focus. Right. Aura.

The chimera ant kicked me in the shoulder, worsening the pain even more. “I never tasted a rare, you know?”

The ant kicked me again. “What I would give to just take a bite out of you, you can’t imagine.”

Then, Out of nowhere, her mood abruptly began to worsen.

She kicked me again, right in my broken shoulder. “Do you realize how fucking unfair that is?”

And again. “I work so hard. Hunt all those humans. Make sure I don’t kill all of them to fill up the quota.”

And again. Again. And again.

“And what do I get? I catch something delicious and can’t even get a bite out of it in return?”

I grasped the aura desperately. The pain was too distracting. I was breathing heavily. But I couldn’t give up. Not yet. Exhaustion was already setting in as my energy was constantly leaking. This was my only chance.

“Maybe…” The chimera ant gulped while mindlessly pressing into my broken shoulder. “Maybe I can eat just this one. I could just find another rare to bring back. It should be fine like that, right?”

I could see it. Just beyond my reach. A sweat dripped from my forehead. I forced my mind, with all the willpower I could gather, to concentrate onto the flow of aura. To grasp something ethereal, yet gradually becoming easier to perceive.

“Hmm… What to do. What to do.” The ant tapped her leg into the ground, going around the circles.

Finally, I did it!

Breathing fast and heavy from the intense concentration and exhaustion, I resisted the urge to relax. I got ahold of my aura. It no was longer escaping me.

But this wasn’t enough. I evaded the immediate death by closing off my nodes, but there was still-

The burning sensation on my right arm awoke me from my thoughts. What was that? The chimera ant wasn’t the one that did it.

I opened my eyes, bringing my arm towards my eyes and gazing at the source where the sensation originated from. There, on my arm, right bellow my palm, was a tattoo, something than neither me nor this body had just a minute ago. It was a skull. Wait, no. Not just a skull. It was a Jolly Roger, with a straw hat on its skull.

What was this?

===

[Character Inventory: One Piece]

Description: Manifest strength and abilities of a random character by rolling a roulette. Roll requires a sacrifice in the form of a corpse. Quality of a sacrifice influences chances of getting better rolls. While a character is manifested, the maintaining the state will require constant aura expenditure.

Character Marks: 0/9

===

I stared at the window that had appeared from the thin air. Ability description? Did I manifest the nen ability? How?

“Ugh, goddammit, why do things have to be this complicated?!” the mosquito woman exclaimed.

Okay, fuck. Whatever. I had to just get something to sacrifice, right? A corpse, it said. I looked around, my eyes landing on the corpse of the bandit.

“Now, now, where do you think you’re going?”

I grinded my teeth as the pain flared up from the mosquito's kick. But I had already made contact with the body with my right hand and willed the ability to activate.

As I did, the body of the henchmen distorted, and got absorbed into the mark. I urged the slot to roll.

[Draw Pool: East Blue saga; Romance Down arc.]