#poor killua's york new legs

[seahortensia]

[yourillusoryenvy]

Did Chrollo doom the Phantom Troupe?

Disclaimer: Please note that I am mostly referring to the 2011 anime as I only picked up the manga where the anime stopped. This is my own reflection on the subject, and is not in anyway a fact or truth. Feel free to disagree! 

Neon’s Fortune Telling Power & Her Lack of Knowledge about Nen:

Let’s start by talking about Neon’s Hatsu. We all know that if given the full name, birth date and blood type of someone, she is capable of predicting the future with 100% accuracy, one month at a time, in the form of short poems, one short paragraph per week of the month. She has no knowledge of what she writes/predicts (and does not like to know what she predicted because she feels it will impact what she wrote).  First off, from my point of view Neon seemed really unaware of her nen ability. She is very well aware that she is able to predict fortunes that are 100% reliable, but she does not even seem to know how she does that: she does not know about nen, like Chrollo, Gon or Kurapika for instance. 

Evidence of this is scattered throughout the York New Arc. First, if she was a traditional nen-user she would have practiced all the other basic exercises and should be able to use some level of aura in a defensive manner. I cannot believe that a traditional nen-user would have so easily put their guard down around Chrollo, and used no aura to surround their body. Sure, even a trained Nen-user would loose in a battle against Chrollo but still! A basic nen-user could have limited the force of the blow to her head/neck. And since she would be more capable of defending herself, had she been trained with the basic exercises, she shouldn’t need SO MANY guards. The amount of guards that she has is what you leave with a powerless, defenseless person, not with a nen-user that has at least some basic knowledge of nen.

Next, she announces  that “her hand just write the fortune”, and to me that shows she actually does not know how she can give such accurate fortune. She goes on to tell Chrollo that “they say they are 100% accurate”. Why would a nen user doubt their skills? Compare this to Pakunoda’s reaction when Gon and Killua challenge her ability by stating that “she only extract the purest deepest unaltered memory” and that they won’t be able to deceive her. 

Sure, maybe an explanation is that she does not want to walk around explaining  what nen is and how she does it, but this actually bring me to my next point. Wouldn’t a nen-user, be able to recognize a fellow nen-user? And if so why didn’t she get bothered by Chrollo’s aura? Even Leorio that has the tiniest understanding of nen can tell that Kurapika’s “presence” has changed. Nen-user “feel” different. A non-nen user would brush it off but a nen-user would be able to tell whether a person is a nen-user or not. Had she been a nen-user, and in anyway aware of it, she would have been way more wary of Chrollo’s intention.

Lastly, let’s not forget that she has no clue what happened to her and why she can’t write fortunes anymore. Wouldn’t a nen-user suspect that their nen was sealed somehow? I am not saying she should know that specifically Chrollo did it, I am saying that if she knew about nen, she would know that a nen-user did something to prevent her from using her nen.

I Strongly Suspect that Neon Unknowingly Put a Condition on her Hatsu.

Now why is it important? Well remember what I said earlier about her hatsu, how “she doesn’t know what she writes (AND DOESN’T WANT TO KNOW)”? This is why it matters. A 100% accuracy is a hell of good rate, it’s almost as impossible as let’s say creating unbreakable chains or being able to steal another people’s hatsu... It most likely requires a condition. 

Neon’s goal is to help people know about their future so they can prevent the bad from happening. She states that she feels that if she was told about the fortune, it would impact it somehow. And what if it does? What if she unknowingly set a condition on her hatsu? One that prohibit her from knowing what she wrote, and if she is told then what she wrote becomes fate, unalterable destiny, something her “clients” cannot escape? 

Many time through the arc we are reminded that Neon’s fortune can be escaped if we pay attention to them. If it wasn’t an important fact it would NOT have been repeated so many times throughout: by Chrollo, by Neon, by some random mafia guy... Simply knowing people were using it should have been enough, but Togashi went out of his way to make it point that it was used specifically for this purpose. I think this is a hint to Neon’s nen ability. A hint that if that is her purpose she would need a condition defying the purpose of her nen, something rendering her nen less strong or useless. And what better defies the purpose of her fortune telling ability than rendering her fortune unescapable?

If it became unavoidable, I believe the person attempts to escape would only push back the inevitable. Sure their fate would not happen within that month (making the person feel like they escaped it) but it would keep coming for them.

I know I might be stretching it but stick with me a little bit more! 

Chrollo Used Neon’s Ability and Was Bound by The Condition. So What Does this Mean for the Troupe?

If Chrollo used someone else’s nen I’m assuming he is bond by the same conditions. For instance the indoor fish is for INDOOR only, he cannot alter it and make it useable outside. This was probably a condition set by the original Nen-user to render them more powerful. Similarly, while we can only assume, if Chrollo was to take Shizuku’s ability he could only vacuum non-living things, just like Shizuku. 

This mean in this case, unbeknownst to Chrollo, Neon’s extremely useful nen ability came at a cost: he could not know about what he wrote or its purpose would be wasted by the fortune becoming unavoidable. 

Now we all know what the Troupe did when Chrollo wrote them their fortune, they shared it with each other, out loud, in front of everyone including Chrollo (well except for Hisoka who hid the real fortune with Texture Surprise). 

At that point Uvogin was dead, next in line was Pakunoda. Now it can be argued that Paku died because Hisoka hid his fortune and convinced them to stay. Or maybe it was meant to be because Chrollo had learned her fortune? I mean how, knowing about her fortune, did she still manage to make the wrong choice and get herself kill? I know she cares about Chrollo but her fortune should have guided her! Well anyway for the sake of the argument I won’t count Paku. 

Next of course was Kortopi, who did NOT get his fortune read, but finally come my poor Shalnark (I am still not over his death...). Shalnark’s fortune talked about how he should not make phone calls, because when it matters the most he won’t be able to reach anyone for help. Lastly telling him that death will come calling one time in three. From what we see in the manga and the anime from that point on, the third time that Shalnark’s phone ring is when Hisoka kills him. His phone is shown ringing, falling to the ground as he lunges to catch Kortopi’s head (Hisoka I still hate you for that!). He did not have his phone anymore on him. At the time it mattered most he could not reach anyone. And death came on the third call... Isn’t this odd to you? 

Also let’s not forget that Hisoka could have killed Machi but DID NOT. An odd choice. He could have killed the three of them and send poor Kortopi’s head as a present to Chrollo. I don’t know, he did not have to keep Machi alive. Unless she was MEANT to stay alive, you know just like as her fortune said? 

Lastly, to support this argument Hisoka, who was the only one to know his real  fortune AND to actively try to maintain it, tells Pakunoda that “it seems that bit by bit fate seems to be changing”. This is a very odd statement. It makes no sense why it is changing, why did Hisoka fortune’s change? Why didn’t he get his fight with Chrollo when his fortune told him he would? Because had he fought Chrollo right then and there, he would have most likely won. Chrollo wouldn’t have had time to prepare and no “puppets” to use to fight. It would have been a tough fight, Hisoka would have been the winner and he would have had no reason to kill Kortopi and Shalnark. But if Kortopi’s and Shalnark’s fate was now unalterable, his own fate needed to change so that he could fight Chrollo later, loose, come back, kill Shalnark and Kortopi to accomplish their fates! 

What Will Happen Next (if the hiatus ever ends)?

I have three predictions as to who will die next. The first two depends on whether we count Hisoka leaving the Spiders as “a loss to the calendar”. All the Spiders fortune talked about how their legs are going to be cut in half a.k.a  6 members will die. Personally I don’t think he counts, but I can see the argument that he is a loss so I’ll include my line of thinking in this case. Currently as dead members we have Uvogin, Pakunoda, Shalnark and Kortopi. 

If we count Hisoka has being one of the 6 (as in he left the troupe),  then only one person has to die. The only person remaining who we know was meant to die in York New was Shizuku. Her fortune talked about her being alone in a room of stolen goods. The Black Whale is filled with goods, some probably stolen, all definitely soon-to-be stolen.. Considering the spiders are slowly breaking up in small groups exploring the ship I wouldn’t be surprised that at some point Shizuku finds herself in such room only to meet her death: Hisoka or Kurapika. Her death would be the end of the fortune.

If we don’t count Hisoka has being one of the 6 lost legs then inevitably Shizuku will die for the reason mention above, but another member has to die. That member will be Feitan or Phinks... Most likely Phinks in my opinion, because Feitan is too big of a character for him to be killed like that. I know there is no way to say whether it will be Phinks or Fei but my gut feeling tells me Phinks... Why one of these two? Because they are the only one who did not get their fortune read, and if the fortunes of all the other members have to become true, it can only be someone who did not get their fortune read that can die.

The last option which I believe in way less and really really really hope is wrong is that the fortune said the Spiders will get done to 6 members and so the “massacre” will not end until this happens. The spider is currently at 10 members so 4 more needs to die. Shizuku is one of them I’m sure of that, Phinks and Fei are more than fair game, and then Kalluto and Illumi since they did not have they fortune read. I can see Kalluto and Phinks dying. And then either Illumi or Fei dying grand finale style, as in Hisoka killed Kalluto and Illumi goes berserk or same with Fei after loosing Phinks.  However in this case, I think all other members become fair game. Chrollo, Machi, Bonolenov, Franklin and Nobu are all in danger. I don’t believe, and don’t want to believe, in this third theory but well it is still an option worth mentioning. 

  Conclusion:

Am I stretching the facts? Maybe. I am forced to since we are missing a lot of information, and can only make assumptions about some things. But I believe that some clues are hidden all over the manga and anime hinting that this could be a real possibility. Plus if you think about it from the writter perspective wouldn’t it be a huge plot twist. Imagine for a second a Kurapika v. Chrollo battle, with Kurapika actually knowing about Neon’s nen condition (e.g: she was told when she was working for the Nostrade to never read Neon’s ability to her) and being able to tell Chrollo that it is HIS fault that half the spiders died, that they could have survived had he not STOLEN Neon’s nen ability. Finally, Chrollo regretting stealing something, feeling  GUILTY for stealing, feeling GUILTY for what he did and the impact it had. I would personally love to read something like that! 

Truth is we do not know anything for sure and this is just a theory, but it is worth considering in my opinion. I have no doubt at all that Shizuku, and most likely Fei or Phinks are next. 

Anyway that it just my theory! 

P.S: English is not my first language so I apologize for any grammar/vocab mistakes