Hello, everyone! This is Gon Freecss, 11 years old, waiting for the boss by the swamp.

In the blink of an eye, six years have passed since I became conscious. I've finally stepped into the original story. It's been a pretty intense six years, but to be honest, all I've been doing is training, so it's been a bit monotonous.

Well, to be honest, the results of my training have exceeded my expectations by a factor of two. In terms of pure combat power, I've probably reached a level where I could defeat even the Phantom Troupe if they didn't gang up on me. However, I realized that this wouldn't be enough to survive the Chimera Ant arc, so I redoubled my efforts.

My training was quite fulfilling, thanks to the fox-bear, who became a great training partner for Nen, and Kite, who stayed with me for an extended period. The fox-bear, with its wild instincts, used all of its Nen abilities, including offense, defense, mobility, and even In, to attack me. Kite's guidance, which showed how he had trained all the Nen systems to a high level by imbuing his materialized weapons with multiple abilities, was fully absorbed into my body.

And then there's Hatsu, the most important part of Nen. I ended up creating three abilities. I'll spare you the details, but the first is a fundamental ability for my goal of becoming the strongest, the second is a boost ability for short, decisive battles, and the third is an ability to assist in aura manipulation. Kite gave me a hard time about the first ability, but he let me go through with it for the sake of becoming the strongest Gon.

I created the Hatsu just before Kite left, and I had him check its effects. He gave me the compliment of saying that we would never fight properly again. All I have to do now is improve my overall strength and come up with a training plan for my best friends.

Oh, and maybe it's because of my reincarnation, but my Nen system is Manipulation.

As thoughts of his past and future swirled in his head, Gon easily reeled in the fish that had taken the bait with a single hand. Even such a small thing seemed to be a reward for his hard work, and he couldn't help but feel a childish excitement mixed with anticipation for the Hunter Exam that was about to begin.

Gon returned home carrying the swamp boss, ignoring the commotion around him and pestering Mito to sign his Hunter Exam application form.

As in the original story, Mito had made catching the swamp boss the final condition for Gon to take the Hunter Exam. She reasoned that it would be more difficult to catch a cautious fish than to simply defeat it with brute strength.

However, Mito was not as opposed to Gon taking the Hunter Exam as she was in the original story. This was largely due to the fact that Kite, a full-fledged professional Hunter, had trained Gon for about six months, and Kite had given Gon his full endorsement to pass the exam. In addition, Gon had taken correspondence courses to earn the equivalent of a high school diploma and had convinced Mito of the future prospects of becoming a Hunter, which had led her to become more supportive of his decision.

After receiving his guardian's signature from Mito and checking that the application form was complete, Gon immediately headed to the post office to mail it. Mito and the neighborhood onlookers watched him with a smile, amused by his uncharacteristically excited demeanor.

Having successfully applied for the Hunter Exam, Gon made his way to the training ground in the depths of the forest. There, he was greeted by representatives of each of the animals and, above all, the fox-bear, with whom he had honed his skills over the past six years.

Before turning 11 and entering the original story, Gon had explained that he would eventually leave the island and that he would rarely visit the forest after that. He expressed his sincere gratitude to them all.

Despite it being his first visit in a while due to prioritizing his correspondence education, Gon immediately noticed something strange about the animals' behavior. In particular, the child of the Nen-using fox-bear, which would have been called Kon in the original story, was standing upright and still, its body a full head taller than usual. This sight brought a chuckle to Gon's lips.

"I thought I was called here, but did the boss's kid do something? As I said before, I'm not involved in the forest anymore, so I won't interfere," Gon said, sensing that the situation was at a standstill.

As if sensing Gon's prompt, the forest guardian, who had been lying motionless, quietly rose to its feet. The nameless creature had gradually become more toned since learning Nen, and now had the physique of a muscular adult male. Gon had realized just a few months ago that this phenomenon was due to the guardian's Hatsu, an ability that compressed and strengthened its original body.

The guardian, now moving, came up to Gon and let out a roar before turning to look at the animals behind it. In response, the fox-bear stepped forward from the other animals and, its large body rolling, began to intimidate Gon and the guardian. The other animals followed suit, each one desperately trying to drive the two away.

The guardian watched the animals with a satisfied snort and, as if it belonged there, stood next to Gon.

"Sorry, can you wait a minute? I understand you want to come with me, but it's really not possible. I've already refrained from giving you a name to avoid getting too attached," Gon said.

While Gon was happy about it, the guardian was still not a Hunter and was not the kind of creature that a minor could carry around. Gon could confidently say that it had high combat power and the intelligence to control it, and that it would not cause any unnecessary trouble, but it was simply too conspicuous. In fact, if he brought it home, Mito would faint.

"I could take you with me if you were just a baby, but you can't shrink that much, can you? Sorry, but I think you should stay in the forest."

The guardian let out a disgruntled groan at Gon's words, but then, with a sound that defied description, it began to shrink rapidly. Eventually, it became small enough to fit on Gon's head or shoulder and let out a high-pitched cry like a child.

Gon was amazed that it could compress its body so much, but then he realized that it must be weakened in the same way as Bisuke, since this was the first time he had seen it do so. He chuckled to himself.

"Alright, if you're willing to go that far, I'll take you with me. I'll call you Gin from now on. It would really help if you could stay quiet most of the time. Nice to meet you, Gin. Oh, and by the way, I'll call the new guardian Kon. I'm leaving the forest in your hands."

Stroking the guardian-turned-Gin that had climbed onto his shoulder, he turned his back on the animals that had somehow stopped their intimidation and were now waving at him. It was sad to leave the place he had spent most of his life since he was conscious, but he was even more excited about what was to come.

He didn't know what kind of changes would happen with Gin, a companion who didn't exist in the original story, but in the world of HUNTER x HUNTER, most problems could be solved with a punch.

"Bye! Take care!"

"Qiuun!"

Laughing at Kon's strangely human-like salute in response to Gin's cry, Gon began his journey home to prepare for his departure.

By the way, since Gin is shrinking its body to become smaller, it means that Gon is carrying a weight of several hundred kilograms on his shoulder, but his gait and posture are completely unaffected.