After I cleaned myself, I went back to my room. On the way there I could see the first signs of sunlight. I slumped on my bed tired from the awakening attempt. I should have known this wouldn’t be so easy. And even if it were, I should have still calmed down and rationally analysed the situation. I could ruin my future, simply because I couldn’t wait a few more days. I guess the frustration built up over the years got me. I was so looking forward to it. When I could use aura. When I could start actual training. Training that would lead me to become the strongest entity in the omniverse.

I tried to reach my back, where I first tried to break through. The shell, or more like a soft membrane as I discovered, was all around my body. It wasn’t physical. There was no way to detect it without sensing aura. But it was there. And I could feel it.

After inspecting the membrane for a bit, I thought about it. It wasn’t ever shown or even mentioned in the story. I thought for a little longer, before I just added it to the: [Why don’t nen users awaken toddlers] list. It was getting quite extensive.

So it should go away with time. All I have to do to prove it is to search for the other kids. And so I did. I waited for the time we went outside for the playground and checked a few kids there. All the kids my age had it, and it was even more flaccid than mine. The membrane was on everyone. Even Anim had it, but his seemed a lot more solid. It was no longer another layer of skin, instead it was a protective shell. It was slightly tough and had signs of separation from the skin.

The next thing to check was older kids. When does the membrane fully separate from the skin? When does it solidify? When can it be broken without affecting the person, who it was covering?

And so I went on a journey across the recently built children’s playground. Observations showed that it separated from the skin at around age 7. Some were quicker while others were slower. It all depended on their growth spurts.

So was it affected by hormones? Or maybe the life force leaked out of the body? If that were the case, it would mean that I could use my own aura to strengthen it. There was only one test left that would confirm it. And for it, I had to visit a special place. It was a sector of the orphanage that was reserved for people who were seriously impacted by the incident four years ago. There were all sorts of mental illnesses there, ranging from heavy depression, insanity, schizophrenia, all the way to total mental collapse, where the patients were nothing more than walking corpses.

The mental illnesses caused major hormonal imbalances, which further caused growth disorders. Meare stress could cause all sorts of problems on Earth, then what could such serious problems do?

I tried to look indifferent, unaware of the implications, but it failed miserably. I hate seeing suffering. And to think it was all caused by a single person… How can a single bad decision destroy innumerable lives?

I sigh deeply before proceeding onward. I came to the playing area for the traumatized. It was far different. There weren’t any sharp or dangerous things around and the whole thing had a small fence around it. Soon, I arrived at a secluded corner. There I saw a kid, who just blankly stared at the wall. I didn’t see him move even a little. He looked like he was seven years old, but actually, he was over eleven. His growth stopped completely after the incident.

I approached him and probed him with my senses. When my senses touched his skin, he twitched. But that was probably just my imagination. Just as I suspected, his shell was still flaccid. I fell into thought as I left, not noticing the slight movement of the traumatized kid. This was the first time the child voluntarily moved in years.

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As I arrived back at my room, I thought about the shell. I confirmed my suspicions. It was affected by aura and life force. The only thing left to do was to guide my aura to the barrier. To do that, I would have to train my control over it. And that would take a while.

***

A month has passed and I have some basic control over my aura. I can increase the concentration of it in any part of my body. It can probably boost my development or slow it down, depending on what I want. My utmost priority is to awaken my aura nodes so I can use it outside of my body and train it effectively. If this low quantity of aura can develop a body normally, imagine what a massive amount of aura could do! I could even reach Killua’s level! But I doubt it. I am just a normal human, while he is the most talented member of the prestigious Zoldyk family. The gap is massive. But my strength will surpass his. I will make sure of it.

***

And so I continued to focus my aura on the membrane. It took me over six months to achieve it. The amount of aura in my body more than tripled while I was training. In the end, I had a lot of it remaining, so I focused it on my brains, bones, organs and senses. Depending on what I was doing, I moved the aura inside of my body. I still haven’t awakened so I can’t influence the aura outside. But what I could do is influence the freely floating energy in the air and make it mine. From the tests I did, I noticed that aura used in nen techniques was just outside aura transformed to follow the aura user’s commands. It was life force that did the transforming. I guess this solves the mystery of why shooting aura blasts doesn’t decrease your lifespan.

The shell around me became extremely sturdy. I doubt a normal person would be able to break through it. But since when was I normal?

I had created a plan on how to awaken my aura nodes. I didn’t use the vanilla awakening since even if my plan failed, I would be on the same level as the others. But if it succeeded, I would reap great benefits.

I was confident in my aura control, so I decided to start the process.

The most important thing to do was to make the shell around my body a one way gate. In simpler terms, aura could get into my body, but not out of it, unless I desired to do so.

And so I did. The thing that once was the soft membrane was influenced by my will infused aura. It’s property to prevent aura leakage was boosted by a huge margin while aura intake remained the same.

I began by preventing any aura leakage. After that, I boosted my metabolism by drinking lots of cold water, eating protein rich and spicy food and exercising. I wanted my body to be as active as possible. While this would be inadvisable back on Earth, the different body structure made it harmless and even good for the person. From this I realised that the Zoldyck poison training actually benefited the whole body. It would boost body activity and allow for harsher training.

I ran around and absorbed as much natural energy as possible. Keeping my brains active would increase the rate at which natural energy would be transformed into my aura. In just a few hours, I felt bloated from both food and aura. I manipulated it to focus on my veins and shell. Blood was by far the most effective substance to conduct and store aura. At least in the human body. And it was extremely convenient. There is an already constructed network and it reaches every single cell in the body.

The two hours I spent meditating while feeling bloated were painful and dangerous. If I lost concentration and the aura escaped violently my shell would be damaged and all of my attempts would be wasted. It took over a month of infusing aura into the tiny damaged spot from the first breakthrough attempt to fix it completely, so how long would I have to spend to fix my entire body? Years? Decades? A lifetime? Who knows, but I don’t want to find out.

For all the risks involved, the endeavor was fruitful. Veins were far better at guiding aura compared to before. Infusing my organs wouldn’t work since the enhanced blood would lose the energy it held too soon to circulate fully around my body. It would be far more effective if I infused the veins first. But organs are one of the things I will focus on soon. They would passively increase my strength.

As this training continued, I started creating nexuses around my body which would be extremely useful later. I assigned 180 points all over my body, which followed several meditation philosophies from my previous world, together with some changes and modifications, to suit me better. There were 12 major, 48 intermediate and 120 minor points. The major nexuses were divided into the 8 vertical points and the 4 extremities . The vertical points were on: the top of the head, glabella, collar bone, heart, anti heart, solar plexus, belly button and genitals. The extremities were on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. Next were the 48 intermediate nexuses. They were placed on all important organs, limbs, senses, muscles and connecting the major points. Lastly there were the 120 centers which just connected the entire body and filled it evenly.

***

It was a month before I turned 5. I wanted to awaken my aura nodes and master as much nen as possible before turning 6. Why? It’s because you start rapidly forgetting your early years by then and hyperlearning will slowly be turned off. It was of utmost importance to reach as high as I could before then. I wasn’t sure if my memories would be affected since they were bound to my soul but who knows. I don’t want to risk it.

And it will soon be time to awaken.