Part 44: The X Beast X Inside

I don't even know if it's day or night, but there's one thing I'm sure I know. I couldn't sleep. Everything that happened to me right now was so unreal. I remembered how I was just a ship worker like it was just yesterday, and now, I can finally find the answers to my questions.

But...

I'm scared. Why?

I wanted to know the truth about my arm but... I'm nervous that I couldn't be able to take it. What if... I really don't want to do it?

I was just lying on one of the bunk beds, trying my best to sleep and rest. It's still uncomfortable to be on a new bed. I missed lying on my own bed back in our house. I also missed my father. After all of this was over, I wanted to go back to him and lived a peaceful life.

"Papa..." I muttered his name and sat down on my bed, hugged both of my knees while the blanket wrapped around me.

I promised I'll know about my arm. I don't care if it's terrifying to hear or not. I want to know everything. I want to remove it from my body. I want to be free.

As I was thinking deeply, suddenly, someone opened the only door of the room, making me let go of my knees and sat properly on the bed. Grenno showed up in the door, trying to peek at my condition, but instead, he saw me awake.

I heard him sigh. "Fine. You can come out. Just... don't blame me when everything goes wrong."

With that, he closed the door, leaving me alone again. I stood up from my bed and prepared myself for the information I'll be knowing. I'm nervous and scared, but I have to be strong to find out everything.

I followed him back towards the laboratory and it's still the same as we left it.

I walked around the room and nothing changed at all. There are still specimens locked in the chambers and unknown machines started activating.

"Come here." He said in his laid-back attitude while he scratched his nape. He looked irritated and tired right now. Maybe he did some work while I was resting in the dormitory.

He stopped in the middle of a glass chamber. I also stopped and took a peek of what he is seeing. When I saw it, my eyes widened and I covered my mouth to stop myself from puking. Inside there was a sliced cursed arm like mine, but unlike me, the eyes in there are still active, as well as the tongue nails and the mouth in the middle.

"This is a distorted arm I found during my travels, but it's rotten now, so my research is limited." Grenno started explaining about the arm in the chamber, but all of a sudden, I got deaf, and couldn't hear anything that he said.

Kill it... Kill it...

I can hear the whispering voice of my arm again in my head. I covered my ears to keep it away but to no avail.

Kill it... Kill it...

Everything around me was blurred. I can hear Grenno's voice shouting at me, but I couldn't understand, and the voice in my head is the only thing that I can hear. I can feel my arm slowly growing and becoming a monster.

Please... Stop...

Kill it... Kill it...

I shouted as loud as I can to stop hearing the voice inside my head and all of a sudden, it faded away. I couldn't hear it anymore, and my vision started to get clear.

I turned my head around the room and almost forgot where I am. I learned to my side and saw Grenno catching his breath like he was running all the time.

I turned to my arm and I saw a syringe attached to it that came from my companion. But I didn't care and just stared at it. I couldn't think properly and I don't even know what happened to me.

"What... happened?" I asked him with my weak voice as I continued turning around to see everything. The glass chamber that we saw before was now covered with cloth and couldn't be able to see what's inside.

"You idiot! You should have told me that you couldn't control you am properly!" He answered between his breath as he just lies down on the floor, trying to take long and deep breaths. "You went wild so I have to inject you with a depressant."

"I-I'm sorry," I said, guilty of what I did. But even though he shouted and his face said so, it seems like he wasn't that angry at all.

He finally sat down the floor from lying and tried to take deep breaths out of exhaustion. I tried to look at him out of guilt. I wanted to say my apology but I know that it won't mean anything to him. Instead, I'll just ask something.

"W-Where did that arm... came from?" I tried to ask as I was stuttering between my words. I was too nervous to ask him questions since he was angry at me. But I'm too curious to stop. Where did he get that arm? How can he remove it?

After what I said, we were surrounded by silence. No one dared to speak anything. The disaster that happened earlier make us too tired. I just lowered my head, just waiting for his answer.

"It was from... my friend." He started to speak. I raised my head and turned around to see him, ready to listen to his story. So it was from his friend, huh?

"I found him lying on the ground, his cursed arm was chopped off of his body. He's losing blood and about to die." He continued as I was just listening, couldn't help but be sad for Grenno and his friend. But then, I took a peek of my companion, and he released a faint smile. "And yet... he's smiling."

And again, we're stuck in silence. I didn't speak anymore since I heard that. So there's been other people that have a cursed arm like me. But... how can they take it off?

"Secco" he called for me so I turned around to see him. He stood up from sitting and turned around to see me. His face was serious right now and his eyebrows were back on being together. "I'll tell you everything I knew about your arm, and how to remove it. But in exchange, let me inspect your arm and tell me everything you knew about it."

"I want to know where it came from. And eliminate it once and for all." He added, still keeping his serious face. "Understood?"

"Yes!" I answered with determination and enthusiasm. I did what he did before and stood up straight. I don't know but I have the feeling that I wanted to do this. Not just because I wanted to know about my arm, but because I wanted to help Grenno in looking for the origin. I'll do what I must.

We had a meeting in the laboratory, and he started explaining everything he knew about my arm.

He gave me a document covered in a folder and showed me the results of his research in the past years. I opened it and several pictures of the distorted arm can be seen.

There's also a censored picture of a man lying on the ground with his arm chopped off of his body. That must be his friend. It looks so sad now that I'm the one who can see this. The smile on his face was sincere. Like he was so happy the arm had gotten off of his body.

I can't blame him for his joy. It's hard to be with this cursed arm. It made you kill people if you feel anger or fear around them.

I switched to the other documents, couldn't be able to take the pity sight of the man. In the next paper, it was a whole conclusion of Grenno's research, with his signature on the bottom of the page.

The theory of the 'distorted' arm being a parasite didn't have supporting evidence and the rules it obeys didn't have scientific logic.

"Parasite..." I muttered. So that means the arm was some sort of a parasite, huh? Well, it looks like it.

Therefore, the researcher concluded that the 'distorted' arm was a creature formed of negative energy that came from one or two suspects which fed to their hosts' negative energy surrounding their body, causing it to manipulate and take over their hosts.

Some parts of the paragraph was a complete enigma to me, but when I combined all of the keywords inside it, then I couldn't help but come to the conclusion that I didn't expect. Could it be...

"Does this relate to... Nen?" I raised my head and stared at Grenno, waiting for his confirmation. I understood it at first, but when I read it about how it feeds to the negative energy surrounding its host, I immediately thought that it was related to Nen.

"Yeah." He spoke, which made my eyes widened. "It was a Nen product called the 'Nen Beast'."

"Nen Beast?" I asked, couldn't understand the term, but based on the words, it must be a beast that you can make out of Nen.

"It was any creature that was produced by Nen energy." He started to explain. "Most of the Nen Beasts was produced by Nen users with Emission types."

"But... in the distorted arm's case, it doesn't look like it." He added. I didn't have a choice but to listen to him. I must know everything I can about my arm. "The Nen Beasts the Emitters produced cannot be seen by the ordinary people. But the distorted arm was visible to the eyes of those who don't have Nen."

"W-What does that mean...?" I asked, desperate to know the reasons.

"It might come from a Conjurer. But if it came from a Conjurer, then he couldn't summon the Nen Beast to manipulate their hosts. They need to be an Emitter or a Manipulator to do that. And in the Nen Type Hexagon, those three are really far away from each other."

I didn't understand some of the things he said, and just took the keywords I can remember. That means the ones who made it couldn't be able to make the distorted arm if he's a Conjurer. Then...

"Does that mean... there are two people making it?" I guessed, waiting for Grenno's response.

He looked at me with a wide smirk on his face.

"Not bad, kid." He praised, but I didn't bother to celebrate for it, since my curiosity wins over my mind right now.

"Yeah. I have a high feeling they were produced by two people who have strong bonds. They made these distorted arms and put it into other people." He explained. "But there's something that piques my interest."

"What is that?" I asked with desperation.

"It was the fact that—"

RING! RING! RING!

Grenno couldn't be able to finish his sentence when all of a sudden, his phone rang in his pocket. I can see the irritation in his face as he grabbed the phone out. He answered it with his eyebrows finally touched each other.

"I told you to not disturb me, you brat!" He shouted in the phone, spitting out the liquid from his mouth. I can even see the irk mark on his forehead while he was talking to the other line.

"Sorry, Master! I just missed you!" A female voice came from the other line. And it wasn't just any female voice. When I heard her from the other line, I couldn't help but smile at her presence. That was my master's voice.

"Master Java!~" I yelled excitedly as my eyes started to sparkle on the fact that it came from my master. I've never seen her and Archi for almost a year so I'm very happy to hear their voices.

"Oh, Secco! You finally found him, huh?" She said on the other line along with a chuckle.

"Shut up, you lazy hag! I know you brought her here with me so you can't take care of her!" He shouted in the phone with all his might. This is the sight that I didn't expect Grenno.

"Yeah. Yeah. Shout all you want. Aren't you just glad that I brought what you wanted for your research?" Java asked with a devilish giggle. My companion couldn't be able to respond since he realized what she had done for him.

"Never mind that. Why did you call me for?" He said, now calm and collected. I sighed out of relief. I thought this conversation will be in chaos.

"Oh, right!" Java started to speak. "I confirmed that this was the place."

The atmosphere suddenly became heavy inside the room as we listened seriously to what the other line was about to say.

"The Philene Village. They're here."