---
"First lesson," the man said, standing with his back to Farro.
"Forget everything you think you understand. Power… meaning… identity. They don't belong to you yet."
They were in an abandoned warehouse. Rain tapped against the metal roof like a ticking clock with no hands.
Inside, the air was still. Heavy. Farro felt it again—that subtle hum inside his chest, like something awakening but still uncertain.
"Who are you?" Farro asked.
"You called me something before. A flaw… a remainder."
The man didn't turn. He just exhaled smoke and spoke as if into the shadows.
"Names are illusions. So are labels. What you are… is an absence that survived."
He turned, finally.
Eyes sharp. Old. Like they had watched too many endings.
"You want power. Not just to survive, but to define yourself."
Farro nodded.
"Then you must begin at zero—not by learning how to use Nen… but by remembering what it was before humans gave it a name."
---
Farro frowned. "I don't understand."
"Of course not," the man smiled.
"Because no one does. Nen isn't taught. It's revealed. Like a language your soul once knew, but forgot the moment you were born."
He reached into his coat and pulled out a dull, cracked stone.
"This is not magical. It holds no power. And yet… it's the first object every one of my students must carry."
Farro took it.
It felt… wrong.
Not evil. Not cursed. Just… hollow. As if it had once held a universe and now held nothing.
"Carry it with you. Feel it. Let it remind you of what you lack."
---
That night, Farro didn't sleep.
The stone pulsed faintly in his hand.
And he realized something:
The hum inside his chest wasn't growing louder.
It was syncing with the stone.
They were empty together.
And in that moment—he wasn't alone.
---
The man visited him the next morning.
"That feeling you had… describe it."
"Like… something was listening. Not outside. Inside."
The man nodded.
"That's the threshold. The border between you and your real self."
"Nen is not energy. Nen is not aura. Nen is not fighting technique."
"Nen is the language your existence speaks when the world stops listening."
---
And for the first time, Farro understood:
He wasn't here to become stronger.
He was here to become real.
---