Parallel world Manga Artist-Chapter 230: Price

In mid-December, another chapter of Hunter x Hunter dropped.

This week's installment set the Ant King's storyline aside entirely and shifted the focus back to the protagonist, Gon.

True to his word, Gon had given Neferpitou one full hour to try to save Komugi. Once the time was up, he followed her to the room where she had been keeping Kite... only to find Kite's corpse, hacked apart and crudely stitched back together with Nen threads like a broken puppet.

Kite was dead. Truly, irreversibly dead.

Then...

In this chapter came the heart-wrenching scene that sent Gon spiraling into darkness before every reader in Japan. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Upon learning that Kite was beyond even Neferpitou's power to revive, Gon invoked a Vow and Restriction. The same principle Kurapika had once used: sacrificing self-imposed limits in exchange for power that was never meant to be his.

But Gon was far more ruthless than Kurapika had ever been.

To defeat Neferpitou, he compressed every last drop of his latent potential, trading it all for the strength and body that his future self might have attained only after decades of relentless training. In an instant, the twelve-year-old boy was gone, replaced by a towering figure radiating terrifying Nen.

He crushed Neferpitou. He killed her.

But the price was absolute. His body's potential was burned to nothing. His life was draining away. Even Killua, desperately searching for any solution, could find no way to save him.

At the chapter's end, Gon, one arm shattered, poured every remaining fragment of his life force into one final blow against Neferpitou's corpse... framed by his tear-streaked, hopeless face.

"I'm... a little glad. At last, I can be like Kite... I feel a little redeemed."

A vast surge of life poured out of Gon with that strike. Then, in the instant he turned to look back at his best friend Killua...

That page left Japan's entire fandom in stunned silence.

'What kind of plot twist is this?'

'The protagonist... Gon...'

'Shirogane, you actually killed him?'

A few weeks ago, Chairman Netero had died.

Now even the main character wasn't spared?

Then who was going to fight the Ant King?

After this chapter, the Hunter x Hunter discourse erupted louder than when the Poor Man's Rose had detonated.

"This chapter broke me. Gon and Killua had me in tears."

"Why? Who said protagonists in shōnen manga don't die? Because this one just did!"

"My head is spinning."

"The protagonist is dead? Is this another fake-out?"

"No way. The narration explicitly states that Gon used the taboo Vow and Restriction to forcibly draw out power that was never his. After this fight, he will die. Shirogane-sensei has no reason to bluff here..."

"Can we talk about how terrifying Adult Gon looked? That double-page spread gave me chills. He went from a twelve-year-old kid to something that looked like it could stand next to the Ant King. Shirogane-sensei's art was on another level this chapter."

"That's the cruel part though. He finally reached a level where he could fight alongside Netero and the Ant King, and it cost him everything. He'll never fight again."

"The panel where Killua just stood there watching... not saying a word... that hit harder than the transformation itself. You could feel his helplessness through the page."

"I keep going back to the scene where Gon told Neferpitou he didn't care if Komugi died. Back then I was angry at him. Now, seeing where that rage led him... I just feel sad."

"Has anyone else noticed that Gon's Vow and Restriction is basically the same logic as Netero's Poor Man's Rose? Both of them traded their own lives to take down an enemy they couldn't beat normally. The protagonist and the Chairman ended up choosing the exact same path."

"That's a good point. And neither of them hesitated. Netero smiled before he detonated. Gon smiled before he threw that last punch. This arc turns its heroes into martyrs."

"Besides, I've had a feeling for a while now that Shirogane-sensei has been steering Hunter x Hunter toward an ensemble cast."

"That's exactly what the Chimera Ant arc does. Without that final confrontation with Neferpitou, Gon would have spent the entire arc as background dressing. The real star of the Chimera Ant arc is the Ant King. The most memorable supporting roles are Komugi and Netero. Maybe Shirogane-sensei plans to kill Gon off and transition to a different lead?"

"Hunter x Hunter is going on hiatus after the Chimera Ant arc ends. Shirogane wouldn't dare do something this drastic, right?"

"Then why do you think he's taking a break right after? He hasn't figured out how to handle switching protagonists yet."

"Don't... I can't accept Gon dying. Please, no."

"Same. Gon is the one and only Hunter x Hunter protagonist. If he dies, the manga is ruined."

"I've noticed Shirogane-sensei's pattern: in Hikaru no Go, he killed Sai in the middle of the story. In Arcane, he sacrificed characters tragically near the end. Now Hunter x Hunter... He clearly has an affinity for tragic storytelling."

"Comedy is forgotten after you watch it. But tragedy stays with you."

"But I absolutely refuse to let Hunter x Hunter end in tragedy. I can accept it shifting from shōnen to darker, more mature storytelling, but not outright tragedy. Gon is Hunter x Hunter's protagonist. Any ensemble development that comes at the cost of sacrificing him is just a bad ending."

Late that night, Rei scrolled through the flood of fan comments with a complicated expression.

Japan's manga craftsmanship in this world might lag slightly behind what he remembered from his previous life, but the fans' critical instincts were razor-sharp.

Just from the way the Chimera Ant arc was structured, they had already guessed the general direction of what was coming.

After all, in his previous life's Dark Continent arc, the storyline that followed the Chimera Ant saga, the protagonist Gon had essentially vanished. He'd been left recuperating on his hometown of Whale Island, barely appearing at all throughout the entire Dark Continent storyline, which instead focused on the Phantom Troupe, Hisoka, Kurapika, and the rest.

And strictly speaking, Rei hadn't been fond of that arrangement either.

Though the fans' speculation did carry a fair amount of wishful thinking...

After finishing the forum posts, Rei checked his private messages.

They poured in, one after another, begging him to stop the tragedy. Telling him that shōnen manga should stay hot-blooded. That this wasn't the Hunter x Hunter they'd signed up for.

Reading them, Rei sighed.

Hot-blooded?

Not a single fight in the entire Chimera Ant arc had felt hot-blooded or lighthearted.

From start to finish, the arc had been solemn and tragic.

As for the fans' wish for less heartbreak, that was impossible.

Because Gon's role in this arc had been thin and his death remained ambiguous, the fans were restless but not yet grief-stricken. For now, they only vented their frustrations at Rei online.

But what came next was the Chimera Ant arc's most unforgettable sequence. Its most moving moment. Its most heartbreaking finale.

The final fate of Komugi and the Ant King.

To most Hunter x Hunter fans, Gon, the character who'd been given the most pages across the entire series, was the beloved star.

But for Rei, the two characters who had left the deepest imprint on his heart were the Ant King and Komugi.

They were the ones who, long after the Chimera Ant arc ended, truly made readers stop and reflect on life and destiny.

Rei closed the last of the fan comments beneath his account, shut his laptop, and whispered softly into the quiet room.

"Hang in there... in just a few more weeks, you'll see the most unforgettable ending this manga has to offer."