10 Things to Remember About the Hunter X Hunter Succession Contest Arc

Hunter X Hunter has resumed publication with chapter 411, and the Succession Contest Arc has hit the ground running! Kurapika is still caught up in the Kakin succession contest, a Nen ritual that will see only one of the fourteen princes crowned as the new king of Kakin. The Succession Contest is not for the faint of heart, as Nen beasts, secret assassins, and brewing mafia wars are just the tip of the iceberg!


The Succession Contest Arc (even for a genius like Kurapika) can be difficult to keep all the details straight. A few new plotlines and schemes are being introduced every few chapters. So what is a reader, casual or hardcore, to do? Below is a succinct rundown of many of the major plot points to either refresh your memory or get you caught up before starting a fresh read of Hunter X Hunter!

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!!

The State of the Succession Contest so Far

Aboard the Black Whale, bound for the Dark Continent, the royal family of Kakin has begun a complex nen ritual, the succession contest, to name the next king of Kakin among the 14 princes, by the deaths of all but one of the prospective monarchs. Each prince has been gifted a Nen Beast, a Nen empowered guard spirit, in addition to a retinue of guards, maids, and other complex private resources to aid them.


Kurapika, in his latest hunt for the scarlet eyes, has joined Prince Woble’s faction and, through a series of Nen-related assaults and circumstances, has become the leader of the now-decimated faction, doing all he can to secure the infant prince’s life and reach a stalemate for everyone’s safety.


To facilitate this, Kurapika revealed the existence of nen to all the other princes, resulting in an arms race to gain nen abilities for those who lack them and squash the other princes’ before they can gain them. Kurapika has also begun nen classes to help keep the stalemate alive as best he can, all the while negotiating with the princes, forming alliances and plans to guarantee everyone’s survival. All the while, Kurapika’s true target, Prince Tserriednich, is just out of reach.


Despite all this effort, three princes have already died, with Prince Benjamin’s nen-awakened guards hanging over the shoulders of his rival princes, to name just a few of the various schemes and plans amongst the royalty of Kakin to end their siblings and secure their future thrones.


The princes are not the only players in this succession contest, as someone else aboard the black whale has been gaming the contest longer than any of them combined: Beyond Netero.

Beyond Netero Is Rigging the Contest

Beyond Netero, Isaac Netero’s son and mastermind behind the voyage to the Dark Continent, has greater plans for Kakin than as a sponsor for his voyage.


Langhi, a seemingly random guard, reveals that she and many other Nen-awakened guards amongst the princes are secret children of Beyond. Each of them was forced-awakened to Nen at birth through a curse that, supposedly, is designed to kill a prince upon their death. All of it is for the purpose of allowing a prince that Beyond also secretly fathered onto the throne once the Succession Contest is over (exploiting the condition that the children of the queen(s) can participate in the contest, not the king).


Neither Langhi nor Kurapika has any idea why Beyond has such an interest in Kakin’s future. Still, his twisted schemes to influence the outcome by sacrificing his own children make him a secret major player in the succession contest.


Beyond was not the only one with the Nen-based curse tactic in mind, as one of the princes aims to exploit it to the fullest to win the succession contest.

Camellia has Secret Nen Assassins

Prince Camellia has her own curse-related nen-users on her side. Thirteen of Camellia's employees are, in actuality, Nen-Users, the Have-Nots, all with the same Nen ability that can inflict a deadly curse upon a designated target, namely the rival princes in the succession contest, upon their ritualistic death.


The Nen-curse has the power to remove someone’s Nen abilities or, worse yet, kill a target either quickly or over an extended period, all predicated on the duration and proximity to the designated victims.


Each Have-Not has been assigned a particular prince to curse, with those without a prince to target now on the hunt for a potential Nen exorcist who could thwart their efforts. Sarahell, the guard assigned to Prince Woble, is set to join Kurapika’s nen classes and aims to curse the young prince when the opportunity presents itself.


Nen is proving to be the true decider in the succession contest, and one prince in particular, in barely a month, has already developed an ability capable of winning his throne.

Tserriednich can See Into the Future

Prince Tserriednich has unconsciously gained a powerful specialist ability through his recent nen training.


His Nen ability, triggered when he is at his most vulnerable (Zetsu), allows him to see 10 seconds into the future by closing his eyes, without time progressing as he does so. After those 10 seconds are up, he continues to see 10 seconds ahead of everyone else while time progresses as normal. The second he dedicates to doing something, the precognition stops. Worse yet, everyone around him is given the 10 seconds he envisioned as an illusion. At the same time, he himself can move and act as normal until the illusion catches up with real time, essentially giving him the ability to see and change the future.


The exact limitations and mechanics of the ability are still unknown beyond the requirement of Zetsu, nor is it known whether the horrific nen-beast he also unconsciously manifested is related to this power or is, in fact, another ability altogether. Either way, Prince Tserriednich is an unparalleled nen genius who, the longer he trains, becomes the obvious frontrunner in the succession contest and perhaps even a threat to the entire world.


He is not the only prince making leaps and bounds in Nen and, unlike Tserriednich, Prince Halkenburg has already put his new powers to the test in winning the succession contest.

Halkenburg has a Master Plan

Prince Halkenburg is something of a Nen genius himself, having manifested his own terrifying Nen ability in conjunction with his Nen beast. With the energy of his immediate followers to power him, Halkenburg can fire an invincible, unstoppable arrow that, upon striking a target, allows either his followers or himself to swap bodies with that target. Not only that, his power keeps the targeted victim comatose. At the same time, Halkenburg or his follower is awake and can continue to control the body even after their original body dies (if only for a limited time).


Halkenburg, resolved to win the succession war after his attempt to end it failed, sets his sights on the biggest target: Prince Benjamin. He has targeted and killed several of his Nen-trained guards, and, after Benjamin plotted his poisoning, Halkenburg has gone so far as to end his own body's life, living on through Benjamin’s right-hand man’s body, to see his plan through.


What exactly is he planning? Whatever it is, it is serious enough to force Benjamin to resort to his last option.

Benjamin has declared Martial Law

Prince Benjamin has been infected with a bio-weapon (the very same he targeted his brother with). He has less than a day to live, but he is not unprepared; as the chief military officer aboard the Black Whale, he has declared martial law.


He now has absolute authority on the vessel and, in a last-ditch effort to secure his victory, has begun rounding up the princes and, through a secret illegitimate child he had brought on board, secure his personal legacy by winning the succession contest, then declaring his child as his successor before he succumbs to illness.


Many Princes are unaccounted for, and the Hunters aboard the vessel, untouchable by the Kakin military, are pushing back against his scheme.


What awaits the militaristic prince? Whatever happens to him, many more players are still in this contest, some yet to even be revealed…

A Nen Serial Killer is Still out There

The Princes are not the only ones with plans in motion. An unknown Nen user wielding the ability Silent Majority remains undiscovered. They have been lurking in Kurapika’s nen classes, and the exact mechanics of their ability are still unrevealed. What is known is that the ability user possesses an unsuspecting person, allowing them to target their conjured blood-drinking snakes at someone else.


The ability user has targeted Prince Woble’s staff primarily, and has moved on to hunting those in Kurapika’s Nen class. Their exact agenda in the succession contest is unknown, but they remain at large, and many factions are interested in their identity and in neutralizing the threat they pose.


The silent majority user is not the only Nen-powered criminal aboard the black whale. The Phantom Troupe are accounted for as well, but are not on another heist this time.

The Phantom Troupe Hunts for Hisoka

The Phantom Troupe caught wind that Hisoka was aboard the Black Whale and, in retaliation for his killing two of their members, had begun their hunt across the entire vessel.


The troupe has broken up into multiple smaller groups, be they teams of one, pairs, or trios, but all with the same goal of finding Hisoka, first come, first kill.


Unfortunately, the Black Whale is physically stratified into multiple tiers, each more difficult to access than the last, with Tier 1, where the princes and the richest amongst the vessel's inhabitants reside, being where Hisoka has taken up residence. Forcing the troupe to get creative to get up there, namely through aligning and using the criminal elements of the Kakin Empire.


Nobunaga, Shalnark, and Feitan have allied with two local Kakin Mafia families to reach the higher tiers of the vessel, in exchange for annihilating their rival mafia family, the Heil-Ly. It is not an easy alliance, as the mafia angles to manipulate the spiders by keeping Hisoka out of their grasp. The mafia has a good reason to do so, as the Heil-Ly has proven to be a threat that could endanger the entire ship, if not the world.

Heil-Ly Family of Nen Serial Killers

The Heil-Ly Mafia is not a usual crime family, but is instead a collective of serial killers that gain Nen abilities the more (and sometimes more valuable) murders they commit!


Morena Prudo, the head of the family, through her Nen ability, Contagion, has given her syndicate this sinister Nen-awakening power, and has already killed hundreds in short order. They even outwitted the Phantom Troupe as their nen abilities continue to grow and their resources become deadlier with every killing.


They are not aimless in their slaughter, however, but seek to destroy the Kakin empire for their horrific crimes against humanity and tyranny under the royal family. To do this, they plan to spread contagion and, to aid their plans, enlist a potential specialist by inducting them into their game. Borsken, reluctant new recruit and a friend to Tserriednich, has little choice but to follow along, weighing her desire to gain nen to help Tserriednich against the mass-murdering machinations she would be drawn further and further into by association with the Heil-Ly.


The Heil-Ly are an ever-growing threat to everyone aboard the ship, so much so that even the Phantom Troupe becomes increasingly interested in seeing them fall. Yet, the spider’s leader has no interest in them, as he is after a different prize…

Chrollo targets the Kakin Royal Treasures!

Chrollo Lucilfer has an agenda beyond hunting for Hisoka or his spider’s respective goals. He has even gone as far as to send fellow troupe member Bonolenov out as an imposter Hisoka, to ascertain and undermine the Mafia’s efforts to manipulate the spider’s and Hisoka’s conflict. Chrollo has a score to settle with Hisoka, but to guarantee his victory, he needs new Nen abilities.


To build his power, he’s targeting the Kakin royal relics, such as the seed urn that sparked the succession contest, which will upgrade his Nen ability and facilitate his hunt for more power.


How and where might he strike to make this happen? Only time will tell! There is plenty more on the Hunter X Hunter Horizon to look forward to!

Plenty more on the Horizon

That covers the breadth of the many plots in the Succession Contest Arc. Many more elements, be they minor or perhaps narrative landmines waiting to be set off, are still nested in the text and waiting to be read and discovered!


Give Hunter X Hunter a read and see what you can find, and watch the Succession Contest Arc unfold!

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