BEYOND NETERO IS THE FATHER OF A KAKIN PRINCE! HUNTER X HUNTER CHAPTER 401 SPOILERS
Hunter x Hunter is back and we already have a massive revelation. Beyond Netero is many steps ahead of every character with one of the craziest plans in the manga’s history.
In the previous Hunter x Hunter chapter, published on December 26, 2022, we see the fallout of Kacho’s death and Kurapika agrees to a deal with 5th Prince Tubeppa.
Here are chapter spoilers courtesy of the Hunter x Hunter Source
Chapter 401 is titled, “Moonlight”
The title is likely a reference to 5th Prince bodyguard Longhi’s Nen ability, which we will see later.
The cover is a color page of Morena Prudo, the nihilistic mafia boss, who notably possesses dark hair, and beneath her visage is the Black Whale.
Morena is currently overseeing a massacre of passangers across the Black Whale to empower her army of Nen users, who have been infected with her Nen ability, Contagion.
The chapter has 18 pages.
In Room 1014, Kurapika is with Bill and Longhi.
Outside the room, Furykov wonders how Longhi will handle the situation, secretly hoping she will take out Wobble.
Furykov is one of 1st Prince Benjamin’s soldiers disguised as one of the Royal Bodyguards assigned to 13th Prince Wobble, so it is within his agenda to extract intel about Nen from Kurapika’s training and find an opportunity to assassinate the 13th Prince.
For now, Furykov is outside, along with the rest of the Nen class.
Longhi explains why she has come to Kurapika and activates her ability, “Transparent Words (Moonlight Act)”, which produces a transparent paper and pen out of Nen. Inkless and paperless, eh? That’s eco-friendly.
Transparent Words is a conditional manipulation Nen ability where the target must willingly sign a contract that can either grant power or restrict actions.
The ability serves as both strict vows and limitations.
Because of this stipulation and the name of her ability, Longhi must explain the contract’s details and her ability fully and without lying prior to receiving a signature from the target.
The contract stipulates that Kurapika will cooperate with 5th Prince Tubeppa, although Tubeppa does not know that Longhi is a Nen user.
In fact, Longhi has her own agenda and is using her ties to Tubeppa to secure herself.
Kurapika is skeptical but Longhi offers to give Kurapika more power to realize her true plan and thus she will be transparent about everything before he signs the contract
The partnership is really just a safeguard for Longhi’s true plan.
Kurapika is skeptical, pointing a gun at her while manifesting his Dowsing Chain to confirm if she is telling the truth or not.
However, Longhi promises to give him extra power to help with the “true plan” and explain everything before he signs.
We start with quite the bombshell here: Longhi is Beyond Netero’s biological daughter.
Everyone in the room is surprised.
It has been a long while since Beyond Netero was even relevant to the plot of the current arc and now one of his first moves involves his own daughter joining forces with one of the stronger Kakin Princes.
Longhi explains that about 30 years ago, Beyond recruited Kakin’s young high-ranking soldiers and set up fake marriages.
However, the children from these marriages were all Beyond Netero’s, including Longhi herself, and were meant to be raised by the soldiers.
This process would go on and on with the birth of each new Kakin Prince, meaning Beyond Netero had planted his seed into the entire Kakin army for 30 years.
The children, such as Longhi, would grow up to become royal bodyguards and aides to the Princes.
Although each child has Nen abilities from birth, only Longhi was aware of her true origins because her adoptive parents had told her.
Everyone else was kept in the dark.
As they matured, Longhi and her half-sister Makaha realized that their Nen abilities were a side effect of an “attack” by Beyond.
This is the “Nen baptism”, a concept introduced alongside the idea of Nen in the Heaven’s Arena arc, where Nen users would forcibly open the aura nodes of those unaware of Nen.
The “baptism” is extremely dangerous as it damages the body, as exhibited by Gido, Sadaso, and Riehlvelt, who have lost some body parts due to their initiation or be drained from the uncontrollable aura leakage.
For Longhi however, this attack was no mere “initiation” but a curse from Beyond that activates after death and lets them kill specific targets.
Longhi reveals that she is one of over 10 “strong curse sacrifices,” and another 10 or so serve as “weak curse sacrifices.”, with both groups meant to kill the Kakin prince they were guarding.
Longhi opens her mouth and reveals the curse mark at the back of her throat, an eye surrounded by Nen script.
Togashi shades this part with much depth to highlight the horror of this curse.
Curses, huh? Just in time as Jujutsu Kaisen ended last week.
This is a major revelation because it means that a number of the named Royal Bodyguards serving the Succession Contest might be unknowing pawns in Beyond Netero’s 50-year-long plan to reach the Dark Continent.
This also means that Beyond had ALWAYS intended Kakin to be the way for him to reach the Dark Continent.
The broadcast from Chapter 340 that sets up the entire expedition was not his only plan but the first enactment of a much bigger scheme.
But Beyond Netero’s plan might be part of the reason why the Succession Contest will be bloody, even with Kurapika and the Zodiacs’ forces trying to keep the Contest from escalating.
This way, one prince will be chosen before reaching the Dark Continent and to remove potential obstacles once they do land.
This is an interesting turn as previously, we assumed that Beyond Netero’s only interest with the Expedition was reaching the Dark Continent and none of the Kakin matters.
However, Beyond appears to be even more involved than we realize and it goes beyond planting his own children into the army.
Kurapika and Bill think Beyond is working among Kakin’s inner circle to secure Prince Benjamin’s succession, but Longhi disagrees.
Longhi theorizes that one of the princes is Beyond’s child and is the one he wants on the throne.
Oito tells Kurapika that for a prince to take part in the Succession War, all they need to be is a “legitimate child of Nasubi’s wife,” and they do not need to be blood-related to Nasubi himself.
This is quite interesting because it means that Morena, a child of Nasubi, for example, was unable to qualify because her mother and the other Kakin Mafia bosses are illegitimate offspring of Nasubi’s father because their mother’s are not part of the Nen contract for the Succession War.
This is a lot of strong information from Longhi and with Kurapika’s Dowsing Chain being precise and the stipulations of Longhi’s ability, we can assume she is telling the truth.
Now we get to business as Longhi forms the contract between Kurapika and Tubeppa, which states that both parties will not attack or interfere with each other’s princes, queens, or soldiers.
The contract will extends automatically if Tsubeppa’s representative shows up in Room 1014 by 9:00 AM next Sunday.
The punishment for breaking the contract is a week of enforced Zetsu, much like Kurapika’s Chain Jail.
Kurapika and Longhi’s condition is to find Beyond’s child before Tubeppa withdraws from the Succession Contest or until two princes remain.
Longhi’s true objective is to personally kill Beyond’s child among the Kakin Princes, believing that if Beyond explained everything earlier, she would not have minded being a pawn.
This motivation may be personal but can come off as weak, especially for a somewhat new player in the game.
She feels like Beyond’s version of Theta, a bodyguard who sees the evil she feels responsible to stop but something might stop her, like a weakened resolve.
Then again unlike Theta and her issues with Tserriednich, Longhi has a 30-year-old Nen curse in her body that is ready to be used and she might as well want to be used to destroy Beyond Netero’s plans.
Longhi leaves Room 1014 in tears, which confuses Furykov and the man thinks that Longhi will not be an assassin after all.
It seems that Furykov’s expectation to have an assassin in Kurapika’s ranks has failed.
We are on to you, buddy. You might be one of Beyond’s kids.
Kurapika tells the Nen class members that the delay was due to peace talks and no agreement has been reached yet.
Furykov does not buy this and in his frustration, he jokes about wanting a transfer, but Babimyna, serious earlier, now stays silent, his face intentionally hidden.
The chapters ends with Beyond in his cell, finally appearing ever since we last left him in Chapter 359, published on June 27,2016, around eight years ago.
Kanzai, one of the Zodiacs, is his observer, and the two joke around until Beyond asks if he could talk to a certain someone.
Could this finally reveal the Prince that Beyond Netero sired?
What does Beyond Netero want from the Succession Contest?
Does he know about the aftermath of the Succession Contest, the Great Kakin Tree and the 13 coffins.
Will the Tree provide Beyond Netero a post-mortem Nen ability that could help survive against the Five Threats and every other monster in the mysterious, unknown Dark Continent?
Or is there some other sinister agenda at play.
Whatever the case, it seems like we will come back here at a later time as the other Prince’s movements have to be discerned first.
Editor’s note:
“What is Beyond’s true goal? The situation on the ship is changing fast! The next issue hints at movements from the princes and Melody. “
Yoshihiro Togashi’s author comment from Shonen Jump issue #45:
“I am deeply grateful that this publication has been made possible thanks to the support and efforts of so many people.”
Chapter 402 will be released on October 14, 2024.
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